Science at Sir Henry Fermor

The pictures below show children in EYFS linking Science to their English text, 'Bears Don't Eat Egg Sandwiches.'

Science at Sir Henry Fermor is an engaging subject where the children are exposed to a knowledge rich curriculum where the facts are consolidated first. The children are then encouraged to think like scientists in order to investigate and understand everyday scientific phenomena. Through scientific enquiry, children will be able to explore and appreciate the how and the why that surrounds science in the world around us. 

Science teaching and learning will focus on:

• building a strong foundation of knowledge that can be built and expanded upon from EYFS to Year 6 and beyond.
•  scientific enquiry so children can develop scientific skills 
• questioning; where the teachers pose thought provoking questions and the learners ask questions to deepen their understanding
• STEM. During the year, children will have terms where they are involved in STEM science. This means an opportunity to revisit previous or new learning as well as encouraging creativity through cross curricular learning. The whole school is also involved in a Fermor STEM day.
• encouraging the use of scientific language in their written work and discussion.
• putting learning into context so children can relate their learning and experiences to real life. This means their learning will have a greater impact on them as scientists and encourage them to ask more questions.   

Throughout their time at Fermor, children will revisit most topics, building on their existing knowledge to create a deeper understanding of the subject. From Early years to Year 6, there are opportunities for exploration and investigation with children at the centre of everything we do. In Science at Fermor we inspire the children, believe in their ability and help them achieve as they should. 

For further information about Science at Fermor School, please view our Science Policy Statement which can be found here.

Science Day 2025

To reflect the topic of British Science Week 2025, our Science Day took the theme of “Change and Adapt” this March.

Throughout the day, the learning in every class reflected this topic in a range of creative and engaging ways.  The school was busy with children carrying out investigations (such as seeing how their heart rate changed with different levels of exercise), creating imaginative designs (such as deciding how a particular animal might adapt to live in different habitats) and asking and answering curious questions about different aspects of changing and adapting.

Thank you to the children (and parents/carers) who also got involved in our ambitious project to see how we, as individuals, change as we grow.  The children did a fantastic job at working collaboratively to measure one another’s heights, and thanks to Year 6, we were able to calculate the mean (average) height of children in each different age group across the school!  Having worked out our heights, we are now able to create a “Tree of Change” as a visual way to represent 2 clear ways that human beings change as they grow up.  The leaves of this tree are made of different coloured hand prints and are annotated with our own definitions of what we understand change and adapt to mean.

It was inspiring to see and hear children getting so involved in their Science on Science Day.  There were many mature questions being asked, Scientific Vocabulary was used appropriately and it was wonderful to see the way that children collaborated and helped one another to try and answer their questions or carry out accurate investigations. 

It is clear that children at Sir Henry Fermor School recognise the importance of Science and are enjoying the opportunity to ask and answer questions in Scientific ways.

What do the children say?

Here at Sir Henry Fermor School we think it's important to regularly talk with the children about their learning. This informs our planning for future lessons whilst also giving valuable insight into the importance the children place on different subjects and their enjoyment of them. 

In a recent discussion about Science with children from several year groups we were encouraged to see that (of the children spoken to):

• 70% say they feel challenged to "about the right" level in Science
• Most children said that the scientific skill they are best at is "discussing scientific facts and explaining why things happen" and most would like to get better at "summarising results and explaining them".
• Over half of the children asked said that they really enjoyed or quite enjoyed Science.
• 100% of the children spoken to said that they think Science is important! 

This is very encouraging in itself, but especially considering some of the reasons the children gave for thinking Science is important:

• "because you learn about lots of different things" (year 2) 
• "we need to learn more about the planet" (year 2) 
• "if we didn't investigate things we might not have the right foods and medicines" (year 5)
• "it can help people cure illnesses" (year 6)

We aim to develop this curiosity and positivity towards Science even more through our Science lessons, practical activities and discussions in class.

Super Displays

Our displays around the school model how we build on the children's existing knowledge and deepen their understanding.

The children at Sir Henry Fermor start each topic by recording what they know (through use of a short quiz) and what they want to know as we travel through their learning journey. We solve our questions through investigations and testing, investigating in books and using secondary sources, and by observing what happens over time.  When a topic has been completed, the children are encouraged to review their learning by revisiting the quiz from the beginning of the unit.