Science

Science at St Stephen's

Our Science Vision

At St Stephen’s, our science curriculum inspires curiosity through CUSP (Curriculum with Unity Schools Partnership) - an approach rooted in cognitive science, which focuses on how children learn, understand, and retain knowledge for the long term.

CUSP Science precisely follows the National Curriculum and is deliberately sequenced to balance substantive knowledge (the core scientific facts and concepts) with disciplinary skills (learning how to work, test, and think like a scientist).

Through retrieval practice - frequent, low-stakes activities that help children recall what they have learned previously - and a rich focus on technical vocabulary, pupils build deep, lasting knowledge across biology, chemistry, and physics.

The foundations of CUSP science are cemented in the EYFS through learning within The Natural World and People, Culture and Communities. Pupils then master essential skills by actively engaging in the five types of scientific enquiry.

We bring science to life, shaping the innovators of tomorrow.

How Children Work Like Scientists: The Five Types of Enquiry

Pupils actively investigate questions using five key methods:

• Observing Over Time: Watching how things change over hours, days, or weeks (e.g., tracking a seed as it grows into a plant or watching ice melt).

• Pattern Seeking: Looking for patterns and relationships in the world around us (e.g., investigating whether trees with bigger leaves grow in shady areas).

• Identifying, Grouping & Classifying: Sorting living things and materials into groups based on their features (e.g., classifying animals by diet or grouping rocks by texture).

• Fair Testing: Changing one factor while keeping everything else the same to measure the result (e.g., testing which material makes the best waterproof coat).

• Researching Using Secondary Sources: Finding answers in books, diagrams, and video clips when direct testing isn't possible (e.g., exploring how planets orbit the sun or what dinosaurs ate).