Sciences
Science
At Hiltingbury Infant School, our science curriculum is designed to bring our core vision to life: "Where every child explores, belongs and grows." We intend for all children to develop the confidence to explore their world with curiosity and creativity, transforming their natural inquisitiveness into purposeful scientific enquiry. Grounded in the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) framework and the Key Stage 1 (KS1) National Curriculum, our science provision creates a safe, nurturing environment where every child feels they truly belong. Through hands-on scientific discovery, child-led investigations, and collaborative problem-solving, we build strong relationships rooted in kindness, respect, and trust.
Curriculum Intent
Our intent is to systematically develop the foundational building blocks of biology, chemistry, and physics by immersing children in the study of plants, animals, seasonal changes, and the properties of everyday materials. We aim to equip young learners with essential "Working Scientifically" skills, teaching them how to observe closely over time, perform simple comparative tests, identify and classify, and gather data to answer their own questions. Science at Hiltingbury extends beyond the classroom through our "World Superheroes", our dedicated pupil-led eco-awareness group. This initiative empowers our children to apply their scientific understanding to real-world environmental issues, fostering deep empathy for conservation, biodiversity, and sustainability. We empower every child to grow as independent, resilient scientists, developing their unique voice, their individuality, and a lifelong love of learning. By explicitly teaching precise scientific vocabulary, cultivating a deep awe for the natural world, and championing our planet through the World Superheroes, we ensure our children flourish into confident, caring, and successful learners who are fully prepared to understand, respect, and protect the world around them.
Curriculum Implementation
Science at Hiltingbury is delivered through a high-quality, practical curriculum where our school values are lived and experienced in everyday learning. We explicitly encourage children to be genuinely curious and ask deep questions about how things work. Whether in the EYFS through child-initiated play within the Understanding the World area of learning, or in KS1 through focused topics like Plants, Materials, and Animals, children enjoy discovering, creating, and thinking deeply. We create a safe, inclusive space where children are encouraged to take risks and try new things in their scientific learning.
We ensure every child feels safe, happy, and valued during science investigations. Working collaboratively, children show kindness, empathy, and respect to one another, building strong positive relationships and celebrating each other's individual ideas and predictions. Furthermore, science lessons are structured to help children become confident and independent learners. When experiments do not go as expected, we encourage them to keep trying and not give up, celebrating their scientific progress and achievements so they remain proud of their growth. To ensure scientific knowledge becomes securely rooted, we build regular retrieval opportunities into our science teaching, allowing children to deliberately recall and reactivate prior knowledge before introducing new concepts. These brief retrieval activities, vocabulary challenges, and structured reviews help transfer core scientific facts into the long-term memory, ensuring children can confidently connect new discoveries to what they have already mastered. Throughout all topics, teachers check what pupils have learned meticulously, explicitly teaching age-appropriate scientific vocabulary and ensuring concepts are securely embedded.
Curriculum Impact
The impact of our Science curriculum is a school community filled with enthusiastic, inquisitive young scientists who are fully equipped to understand the world around them. Our success is demonstrated through curious and independent explorers who talk passionately about their discoveries, display an intrinsic motivation to learn, and demonstrate a respect for living things and the wider environment. Pupils show great resilience in problem-solving, remaining proud of their progress and eager to tackle new challenges without giving up. Ultimately, children make strong progress from their starting points in EYFS through to the end of Key Stage 1. They leave Hiltingbury with a secure foundation of scientific knowledge, a strong sense of belonging, and the precise vocabulary required to step confidently into Key Stage 2.
Enrichment Opportunities
To truly bring learning to life, we maximize the use of our extensive school grounds and dedicated pond area as a rich, living classroom. These exceptional outdoor learning spaces provide regular, hands-on opportunities for children to move beyond the traditional classroom setting, engaging in immersive, real-world biology and environmental study firsthand. From pond dipping and identifying microhabitats to tracking seasonal transformations across our grounds, our children learn by doing. This rich, sensory environment is further enhanced by carefully selected external trips, specialist workshops, and school-wide eco-initiatives that anchor abstract scientific concepts into real-life experiences, deepening the children's wonder and appreciation for the living world.
Scientific Enquiry
For our youngest learners, scientific enquiry is the magic that happens when natural childhood curiosity grows into purposeful discovery. In the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS), this begins with simple exploration where they are encouraged to use their five senses to notice changes, ask "why," and marvel at the world around them. As children progress through Key Stage 1, this wonder turns into structured thinking. In line with the National Curriculum Programme of Study for Year 1 and Year 2, pupils are explicitly taught to use practical scientific methods, processes, and skills through the five statutory areas of working scientifically:
· Observing closely, using simple equipment: Children learn to use tools like magnifying glasses to focus their attention on the minute details of the natural world, tracking transformations such as seasonal changes on our grounds or watching a plant grow from a bulb over time.
· Identifying and classifying: Our children build vital sorting skills by examining animals, plants, and everyday materials up close, learning to name, organize, and group them based on their observable features and properties.
· Performing simple tests: Young scientists begin to explore cause and effect by setting up basic, hands-on experiments. They discover how to change one variable to find an answer, such as testing which material is the most waterproof or which surface a toy car travels across fastest.
· Using their observations and ideas to suggest answers to questions: Children are encouraged to be curious pattern detectives. They look closely at the results of their tests and observations to explain why something happened and to link their discoveries back to their original questions.
· Gathering and recording data to help in answering questions: Pupils learn the early mathematical skills of science by collecting simple measurements and recording their findings using drawings, labelled diagrams, tallies, and basic charts.
Ultimately, by learning to ask simple questions and recognizing that they can be answered in different ways, our infants develop the tools, the vocabulary, and the resilience to wonder, test, and explain exactly how their wonderful world works.
Websites
Learning at home - Science Museum Group Blog
RSPB Wildlife Guides and Activities
