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Mr H Mattu

Head of Science

Statement of Intent:

The Science curriculum instils and nurtures our students’ love of learning for Science by underpinning TKAW’s Sikh ethos and British values, allowing our students to:

• Excel academically, socially, spiritually and ethically in the world of Science.
• Be equipped, irrespective of background, with the Scientific knowledge, skills, attitudes and aspirations to excel in pursuing future endeavours in both education or careers.
• Develop cultural capital through the delivery of academic excellence and exposing students to opportunities through extra-curricular experiences.

Curriculum Vision:

At TKAW, all students receive a rigorous, coherent, well sequenced curriculum which builds on prior knowledge and avoids cognitive load to ensure students have deeper and wider schemas, so students know more, remember more and can do more.

Curriculum Information:

The Science Curriculum at The Khalsa Academy Wolverhampton is designed to provide both a deep and broad understanding of Science as a discipline. We believe it gives all of our pupils a strong understanding of the world around them and to help them to think scientifically. We want students to acquire knowledge, gain an understanding of scientific processes and apply their knowledge as skills. 

This is done on the foundation of a Knowledge-Rich Curriculum which identifies the entirety of the knowledge, specialist vocabulary and skills that pupils need to acquire over the course of five years and beyond into Key Stage 5. This permeates through all classes and year groups, shaping the detailed planning and delivery of all lessons, with a view to retaining knowledge in the long term memory, through sequencing and interleaving. Mathematical skills, scientific literacy, practical skills and communicating ideas clearly and logically are built up progressively in the KS3 course, allowing pupils to develop in confidence when starting KS4. 

The central themes of biology that will be learnt are the organising principles of organisms, interactions between organisms and genetics and evolution. The central themes of chemistry revolve around the atom, the periodic table and chemical reactions. The central themes of Physics are centred around themes of energy, particles and forces. Students will be given an insight into investigative processes and building practical skills in order to enhance their understanding of the biological, the chemical and the physical world.

The Science Department strongly believe in the frequent revisiting of core content, our curriculum aim is for knowledge to be stored in our students’ long term memory, allowing them to build on it and form wider and deeper schemas. We aim to develop our use of spaced retrieval practice and homework, revisiting older content to aid memorisation and mastery of previous content, formative low stakes testing and repeated/purposeful practice. We use deliberate interleaving and reteach weeks in our curriculum to ensure that our knowledge sequences build secure schemas. In terms of assessment, regularly engaging in formative assessment, we also ensure that students accumulation of knowledge over time (that which is retained in their long term memory) at key summative assessment points through the year. 

The Science curriculum promotes TKAW’s Sikh ethos and values of lifelong learning allowing our students to apply their scientific knowledge to contemporary issues making connections between scientific disciplines and therefore pursuing post–secondary education or careers in the field of Science.