Science at Sandown

Sandown's Science Vision

At Sandown School, we believe that science inspires children, providing them with awe and wonder, encouraging them to be inquisitive about the world around them.

To achieve this we provide our children with a range of practical hands on experiences that will encourage observation, curiosity and questioning. Our science curriculum offers a broad range of experiences designed to provide pupils with a progression of scientific understanding, skills and knowledge. Importance is placed on first hand experiences with access to the outdoor learning in Green Zone and the wide range of resources available.

We believe that these opportunities will ensure that our children develop transferable skills to explore the world they live in and become confident learners across the curriculum.

Our Principles of Science

An experience out of this world!

What a phenomenal day year 5 had today where 6 of our pupils went to St Peter’s School in Broadstairs to meet Ariss team and British astronaut - Megan Christian The children had the opportunity to ask many questions!

We also were able to be part of a live link with ISS (International Space Station) which was 400km away from us via radio contact and spoke with American astronaut Jasmine Moghbeli who is currently on board the International Space station.

Children got to take pictures with astronaut Megan Christian and ask questions about the radio set up. The big antennae set up to receive the signal from ISS was quite spectacular to see.

Pupils back in school were part of it via the live link and it was fantastic to hear them talk about the experience on our return.

ISS

Pfizer visit Key stage 2

We are delighted to share our recent STEM day with Pfizer coming in to see our KS2 children. They had a carousel of different experiments during our exciting day. Have a look!

We also have some amazing independent learning days at Green Zone. Have a look at some of our Green Zone Blogs.

The wellbeing of our whole school community runs through everything we do. Why not try some Green Zone inspired wellbeing activities.

Wellbeing Green Zone style

Here are just a few of the amazing experiences we have been able to offer the Children at Sandown.

Click here to see some of our work linked to the RSPB Big Bird Watch.

Creepy Claws assemblies and after school club

Creepy Claws are regular visitors now to Sandown School. They first visit the school for whole school assembly to talk about different animals, providing wider opportunities to our pupils to increase their science capital. Early years, KS1 and 2 pupil joined a very popular creepy claws after school club.

Term 4 Chicks in School

We had 10 fertilized eggs in an incubator, maintained with optimum humidity and temperature to allow the eggs to hatch into chicks. We were very lucky this year with all 10 hatching into beautiful fluffy chicks. Pupils could observe real time hatching and the pipping process in their classes through the web cam set up in the incubator. The pupils also enjoyed a visit from the chicks in their classrooms.

This gave the pupils an opportunity to observe part of the life cycle of chicks, understand how to look after the young ones and become immersed in learning through all areas of the curriculum.

Our Chicks were all adopted by members of our school community and were even named after our Headteacher!

Primary Engineers Leaders Award

We are completely blown away by our pupil's achievement in science. The pupil from Year 3,4,5 and 6 had participated in a Leaders Award run by Primary Engineers for a science project: 'If you were an Engineer what would you do?'

The pupil had an opportunity to interview engineers and come up with a solution to a problem close to their heart, design a product and write a description about it. All the designs were then sent to Primary Engineers and each design was assessed. We now have the results back for that and would like to congratulate all the pupil. We have had an amazing result with a huge number of children getting pass and merit certificates and 21 pupil receiving Distinction certificates for their fantastic designs. A special mention to congratulate 5 of our pupils: Orlagh Reniham, Ellen McAuley Dawson, Keegan Saunders, Rhys Farlow and Devin Joy ; whose designs were shortlisted to go into finals for prototypes to be created. They received the Distinction shortlisted award for their designed products and the write up about them. We are very proud of all our pupil for their problem solving skills and enthusiasm for science.