Science Education

What do we provide to support science education in your school?

As a core subject, science is an important part of the primary and secondary curriculum. However, in addition, pupils need a good grounding in science to help them understand the world they live in, take care of their health and make effective use of science and technology in the workplace.

Developing pupils' understanding of science means ensuring they have a good grasp of scientific ideas and concepts and develop the skills to manipulate these. Skills of analysis, critical thinking and evaluation are vital when considering scientific ideas. In addition, to effectively communicate these ideas and to provide cogent explanations, pupils need to develop the right language. They need to be able to structure their 'argument' to support, for example, a hypothesis they are putting forward or considering. This is not just simply about providing pupils with the key words and scientific vocabulary but about how to structure the language to provide clear explanations.

GK Consulting offers the following range of training and support to develop science teaching in schools:

n Training for primary teachers on delivering the science curriculum effectively

n Use of questioning in science to develop deeper understanding and mastery

n Developing pupils' higher order thinking skills in science

n What does good assessment, marking, feedback and response look like in science?

n Support for primary and secondary schools on developing schemes of work

n Work with science departments and teachers on moderation and accuracy of assessment

n External review and evaluation of science provision

n Coaching to develop teaching and learning and improve teaching to good and outstanding

n Coaching for science leaders to develop their leadership skills

n Training for primary and secondary schools in how to develop pupils' use of language to explain complex scientific concepts and to argue points cogently

n Supporting you to develop STEM work in your school.

In secondary schools, most science teachers are comfortable in teaching the science they studied but less confident about teaching the others, especially at GCSE. Hence, we offer courses to help:

n biology and chemistry teachers to teach physics

n biology and physics teachers to teach chemistry

n chemistry and physics teachers to teach biology.

The training offered unpicks the science curriculum and requirements of exam syllabuses to enable teachers to look in depth at how to help pupils develop secure understanding and mastery of ideas.