Priority 2

• During the autumn term, all planning documents across year groups will be systematically reviewed to ensure that science has been considered, mapped and effectively taught. This review checked that planned learning reflects the intended science themes for the term and that opportunities to explore these topics have been clearly identified within cross-curricular planning. Feedback from this review will inform any adjustments needed to topic plans, ensuring consistent coverage of agreed science topics and alignment with whole-school expectations for science teaching and learning.

• A collection of supportive STEM websites and online tools was sourced and shared with staff to enhance planning and provide fresh ideas for science, technology, engineering and mathematics activities. These resources offered practical investigations, topic-based suggestions and age-appropriate challenges that aligned with classroom needs. By providing accessible, high-quality STEM links, staff were better equipped to enrich lessons, strengthen cross-curricular opportunities and promote curiosity-driven learning across the school.

The review of autumn planning ensured that science topics were clearly embedded across the curriculum, resulting in more consistent and purposeful science teaching throughout the term. Additionally, the sharing of supportive STEM websites provided staff with accessible, high-quality resources that enriched lesson ideas and encouraged more practical, engaging learning experiences. Together, these actions will improve the quality, consistency and visibility of science across the school, contributing to stronger pupil engagement and enhanced scientific understanding.

On going.

• DW created and provided a progressive scientific enquiry process aligned to Progress Steps 1 to 4. The framework outlined how pupils build enquiry skills over time, ensuring that expectations were age-appropriate, consistent and coherent across the school. It identified the key enquiry behaviours, question types and practical approaches appropriate for each progress step, providing staff with clear guidance to support high-quality science teaching. Once completed, the framework was be shared with all staff in a staff meeting and integrated into planning to strengthen the continuity and progression of scientific enquiry.

• Staff monitoring was due to take place in the Spring term but due to the introduction of the new plans this was moved to the Summer term.

• To foster high-level oracy and disciplinary literacy, we implemented Science Vocabulary Fans across all key stages, designed to scaffold the specific language demands of scientific inquiry. These fans serve as a portable toolkit categorised by a variety of different functions, providing students with the exact sentence stems and vocabulary needed for predicting (e.g., "I hypothesise..."), comparison (e.g., "In contrast to..."), and making assumptions based on prior knowledge. As pupils progress to more complex investigations, the fans include dedicated sections for explaining causal relationships, evaluating talk during peer discussions, and navigating the language of opinion versus evidence-based fact. This structured approach ensures that scientific discourse is not left to chance, but is explicitly taught and reinforced.

The introduction of the progressive scientific enquiry framework will strengthen staff confidence and support a more coherent approach to developing pupils’ enquiry skills across Progress Steps 1 to 3. Moving the monitoring of Science and Technology to the summer term allowed staff and pupils to have a deeper understanding of science and scientific equiries. By providing a consistent visual and physical reference, we remove the cognitive load of "searching for words," allowing pupils to focus entirely on the scientific concepts and take full ownership of their investigative voice.

On-going