A clear picture of progression lets a subject leader explain how science develops across a primary school. It also helps teachers answer two important questions: what do my learners already know, and what do they need to learn next? These questions ...

How does a child move from noticing that something has changed to using observations over time to answer a scientific question? This is an important part of primary science because the world doesn't always give us an answer immediately. Some changes...

A pattern is something children notice all the time. The days get longer in summer. Some materials feel colder than others. Tall plants might have more leaves. The further a light source moves from an object, the smaller its shadow may become. Notic...

Classification begins very simply. A child can put all the red objects together. They can put animals with wings in one group and animals without wings in another. Scientific classification becomes much more sophisticated than sorting things accordi...

Fair testing is probably the type of scientific enquiry most familiar to primary teachers. Change one thing. Keep other things the same. Measure what happens. It is an important part of science, but it is only one of the types of scientific enquiry....

There are some scientific questions that children cannot answer by carrying out a practical investigation themselves. They cannot safely observe a blue whale in the classroom. They cannot travel back in time to observe a dinosaur. They cannot watch ...