Following the establishment of the 1989 National Curriculum (NC) for science, the Secretary of State for Education and Science made proposals regarding the revision of Attainment Targets (AT) for science. The key ideas included proposal of:
*Five attainment targets
- AT1 - Scientific investigation...

This report from Ofsted focused on the initial teacher training (ITT) in science for primary teachers. The inspection survey took place during the academic year 2000/01. At the time recent inspections of primary initial teacher training (ITT) had focused on training to teach either english or mathematics and also...

This publication takes the form of a discussion paper published by the Department for Education and Science. It presents the views of the Science Committee of Her Majesty’s Inspectorate. These views are organised into the following areas: science and the curriculum; continuity and progress; development of...

Following a major overhaul of the entire National Curriculum at Key Stage Three, the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority produced a version for science with a structure consistent with other subjects. There were no changes to the other Key Stages, so the Attainment Targets (AT) and Programme of Study (PoS) for...

This was the first National Curriculum for Science in England and Wales. One intention of the National Curriculum was that all students aged 5 to 16 learn science – that there should be ‘Science for All’ – and that this should include both the ‘methods of science’ and the acquisition of ‘knowledge and understanding...

This revision of the National Curriculum was an attempt to simplify the 1989 version, and to make assessment more manageable.

*The 17 Attainment Targets (AT) were reduced to four – with these divided into ‘strands’.

*Fewer Statements of Attainment: the number was approximately halved by broadening...

This revision of the National Curriculum builds on the 1991 version and follows Sir Ron Dearing’s 1993 review of the whole National Curriculum.

*It retains the four Attainment Targets (AT), each with an associated Programme of Study (PoS), although AT1 becomes ‘Experimental and investigative science’, and...

The National Curriculum for science, published in 1999. Compared with the 1995 version of the National Curriculum, the main changes are:
*There is a statement about the ‘Importance of Science’.
*The ‘Experimental and investigative science’ sections are renamed ‘Scientific enquiry’, with an emphasis on a...

This version of the National Curriculum was written to include only changes to the Key Stage Four Programme of Study (PoS) which would be first assessed in 2006. The Attainment Targets (AT) and PoS for Key Stages One, Two and Three did not change at this time. At Key Stage Four, the following overall changes were...

A learning activity guide, from Barefoot Computing, for teachers in primary schools. It provides structure for an introductory programming session using Scratch. The activity involves tinkering within the Scratch environment - initially using existing Scratch projects then moving on to the creation of new projects...

ScratchJr is an introductory programming language that enables young students to create their own interactive stories and games. Students snap together graphical programming blocks to make characters move, jump, dance, and sing. Students can modify characters in the paint editor, add their own voices and sounds,...

This resource provides a selection of lesson plans, worksheets and teachers notes relating to plants at Year One. They include activities for finding out facts about the Sun, observing its apparent movement across the sky and investigating how shadows change during the...

This resource aimed at lower primary level looks at how weather and daylight length change with the different season. It consists of a template for a four seasons disc, which shows four different times in the day and what we may observe at these times during the different seasons. Key vocabulary is provided which...

This resource provides six activities linked to the weather and seasonal changes. Children look at weather forecasts, observe the weather and set up weather stations to record...

The Teaching Primary Science book Seeds and seedlings contains many suggestions for class organisation and for activities relating to this topic. It acknowledges and makes suggestions for addressing the problem of what to do between sowing seeds and producing seedlings...