Primary Science Quality Mark
Second annual hub leader conference
September 17th, 2013
National Science Learning Centre, York
10.30 Update from PSQM team
New organisational structure and funding
New and revamped partnerships
Revised and new materials for training and support
Web site changes
11.30 The new POS for Science: What has shaped it? What opportunities
and pitfalls does it present?
Stuart Naylor Millgate House Education
12.30 Lunch
13.30 Workshop: The stress free way to a great PSQM submission
Bryony Turford: Leeds PSQM hub leader
14.30 Refreshment break
14.45 What does it mean to be a Primary Science Specialist?
Initial outcomes from the Wellcome Trust Primary Science Specialist
Programme
Louise Stubberfield: The Wellcome Trust
15.30 Q and A and evaluations
16.00 Close
Things to remember (Jane)
• Complete your hand out at the end of each
session and hand to Sarah at afternoon tea
break for copying
New organisational structure and
funding
• Since April 2013 PSQM is a project within the UH
School of Education with additional funding from
Primary Science Teaching Trust
• Governance (exec and advisory )
• Staffing
• Finance – revised fees and payments £650/£300
• Formalising of T and C for schools and hub
leaders
• MOUs with ASE, SLC and Wellcome
PSQM: KEY STRATEGIC OBJECTIVES APRIL 2013-18
1. To increase recruitment to PSQM to 1200 UK schools
per year by 2016 and maintain at this level which will
ensure financial sustainability.
2. To ensure that a PSQM award continues to be
accreditation for high quality science provision in
primary schools.
3. To increase capacity of partner organisations to
support primary science.
4. To research, analyse and disseminate findings of
PSQM programme.
ASE membership offer
PSQM Primary school on-line membership :
• Primary Science – 5 issues p.a. of our acclaimed journal
• Education in Science – 4 issues p.a. of ASE’s topical house magazine
• Access to the special primary area on the ASE website – www.ase.org.uk –
(currently under enhancement)
• A ‘golden ticket’ for free one day entry to ASE annual national
conference for all PSQM school staff members
• Advice and guidance on curriculum and safety matters
• Access to regional and national CPD
• Accreditation – the route to Chartered Science Teacher recognition
(CSciTeach) or Registered Scientist (RSci)
• Opportunities to network with other schools and science professionals
• Discounts on ASE books and resources
• Free access to the twice-a-year research journal for early years – Journal
of Emergent Science
Available to PSQM schools for the special price of £15 + VAT on top of the
PSQM fee instead of the stand-alone price of £77 + VAT
Primary Science Teaching Trust
• PSQM is a PSTT hub
• All bids to PSTT that include PSQM need to be
referred to PSQM before submitting
• Support to enable PSTT college members to
become hub leaders
• Exemplar website
Research
• Wellcome published scoping report June 13
•
•
•
•
TAPS Bath Spa -Sarah Earle
UH case studies
Round 4 data sort
Research strategy
Recruitment
• Targeted flyers
– for Teaching Schools
– Alliances
– becoming a hub leader
– New SLPs
• New poster
• Your ideas
Award events
CSciTeach
website
See handout ‘new website Round 7 Onwards’
deletion of delete button where not needed
once assigned all aspects ready
remove mass notifications
no documents other than Core
one portfolio slot for all levels
Section E questions to answer as guidance of content, now needed
When assigning levels use Bronze Award, Silver Award, Gold Award
NB school systems can limit time on site, and size of upload
E: Science at your school
Please answer the following questions about your school:
1) What is your DfE number? (check with the school office)
2) Please describe as best you can your school type (Primary, JMI, Inf, Special, Academy, etc)
3) How many classes per year group?
4) How many cohorts/Year groups?
5) Do you have a nursery attached?
6) Do you have a children's centre attached?
7) How would you describe the catchment/intake of children into your school?
8) Have there been any particular developments/circumstances in the last three years that you
feel you would like to alert the reviewer to?
9) Looking back through this PSQM year, are there any specific science highlights you would
look to headline?
10) What do you feel the school's and your involvement in PSQM this year has done for
science at your school?
documents
2.9 Activity 5 Focused action planning - the tube activity new material
2.9i Is it outreach? new material
Coming soon
Round 5 Portfolio examples
‘Outreach examples’ – Impact beyond the school gate
Moving forward from Bronze to Silver and also From Silver to Gold
Core Document guidance/ advice
Impact beyond the school gate!
Core Documents Only
Advice
CRITERIA
KEY QUESTIONS
BRONZE
INDICATORS
ACTIONS NEEDED
What do I need to do to achieve the
indicator?
WHO
Who is involved?
WHEN BY?
IMPACT
What changes
will I see?
EVIDENCE
What can I use to show
this?
Date
June 2012
CPD
Day 1 and 2 PSQM
What did I gain?
Knowledge of what was needed to gain the award and
time to reflect on current position of school
4 times
throughout
2012/13
Leadership training
Skills to develop a team of science champions all focused
on the same aims and vision for science in the school.
19/11/12
What works well….science. Run by
local education department
Awareness of what was going on in other schools around
us. Took away how to use QR codes, subsequently used
this in end of term Learning walks.
Feb
Getting practical
How to set questions that will lead to greater critical
thinking and independent investigations. Used in ESI week
problem videos.
Twice termly
science network meetings
Jumeirah Primary school showed us how they use concept
cartoons. I subsequently delivered similar training at xxx. I
shared assessment tools (Aiming High, Mini-Sats). Which
are now being used at other schools.
April
Day 3 PSQM
Progress so far. Learned how to write reflections and how
to reference in portfolio
When
October 2011
November 2011
January 2012
Action
New Role as Science leader
Staff Meeting – Aiming High target
document
Staff meeting – Mini-Sats assessment
Impact
Start working on Action Plan.
Targets and expectations shared with children at start of
each topic
Teachers now able to use teacher judgment and
standardized summative assessment to determine level.
More reliable data
February 2012
Staff meeting – Independent investigations Inspection feedback discussed with staff. Ideas for
increasing children’s independence shared. Each year
group challenged to plan for a child- led investigation in
next topic.
April 2012
Staff meeting - ESI week
Antarctic theme. Miss. V visiting Antarctica, what
problems might she encounter. Ideas shared and each
year group decided on a video problem to be made by NL
and Miss. V
May 2012
Year group Science champions meeting
June 2012
PSQM day 1
September 2012
Staff meeting for new staff
First champions meeting. Role and responsibilities
discussed
Started work on action plan. Reflected on current
position of school
Assessment procedures shared
September 2012
Champions meeting - principles
October 2012
Staff meeting - principles
November 2012
science network meeting
I shared assessment procedures with 4 other schools.
Received training on use of concept cartoons.
November 2012
Champions meeting – scientific enquiry
Skills tracking document introduced. Champions to share
with year groups. Greater focus on skills.
Sorting of principle activity cards. 15 key areas found.
Discussed differences between child and teacher
responses
In groups teachers ranked 15 key areas. Results were
collated and principles document created for teacher
files. Principles would form focus of Term 2 informal obs.
Date
Year
All Term 1
3 to 6
27/9/12
Activity/trip/visit
Focus area
Impact of activities
Science club
Investigation skills
Children carry out different
experiments and work together
to explain what happened and
why.
6
Building
Forces and motion
Year 6 children were given a
construction challenge. The trip
taught them about what forces
act on buildings.
1/10/12
1
Visitor from cultural heritage centre
Growing plants
Children became aware of what
characteristics plants must have
in order to survive in the desert.
23/10/13
1 and 3
4th – 8th/ 11/12
19./12/12
15/1/13
Link up between year groups to share Growing plants/Helping plants
what they learned about plant topics grow well
Year 3 shared the results of
their experiment to find out
what was the most important
factor for a plant to survive.
Year 1 able to see future
learning.
Whole school Science fair
Investigation skills
Increased parental involvement
and focus on investigation
process and skills.
Whole school Learning walk
Parental involvement
Children and parents aware of
science learning across whole
school not just child’s year
group.
Habitats
Children able to see first hand
the habitat of falcons and desert
owls and how they survive.
4
Birds of Prey trip
Principles of science teaching
A2
B3
C3
The feedback showed us that
children loved Science when it was
in the lab. Interestingly this didn’t
feature on any teacher comments.
After a discussion with the
teachers it was found that the
poor acoustics and poor
organisation of resources in the lab
were what was putting teachers
off using it.
This led to the science lab being cleared out
and re-stocked with all cupboards labelled
clearly. Sound proofing has been ordered
and will be installed during the summer
holidays. The improved layout of the lab has
led to it being used more frequently than in
the previous year.
Playtime
science
Whole school events and
parental engagement
The school council conducted a survey to find
out how the school could make better use of
its outside space. A science area was
introduced which was managed by Year 6
science champions. Further feedback
highlighted the need for more challenging
activities for Year 5/6, this will be a focus
next year.
B2
C3
Reflection on the impact
Through staff meetings and the provision of resources I have encouraged teachers to use pre-topic assessment
strategies to determine what children already know and what they want to know (see slides 7 and 10). I have
delivered staff meetings which have focused on planning and differentiation. I have suggested the use of ‘will, try,
aspire’ success criteria that allows all children to ‘try’ and ‘aspire’ to meet the challenges that may previously been
reserved for the most able children (see slide 5) . I have encouraged staff to offer extension and open-ended work
for more able children by limiting the support they receive or focusing on their higher order thinking skills (see slide
6). I have recommended science homework that extends and consolidates children’s learning (see slides 16, 18 and
19) and all children have been encouraged to take part of science initiatives at school. For instance, all children took
part in the school-wide Science and Technology Week (see slide 11) and all children were invited to spend some
time after school with one parent who had brought in a telescope for the children to use (see slide 12).
The impact can be seen in book monitoring where children are encouraged to ask their own questions and posttopic assessments allow children to reflect on their learning. Differentiated success criteria creates an environment
where all children are encouraged to aim higher and challenges for more able pupils are being planned into lessons
which aims to develop the children’s independence. Science homework is set which is fun and engaging. Children’s
engagement in and enjoyment of school-based science initiatives, such as Science and Technology Week where
children were exposed to real-life science issues, can be seen through their responses to a pupil voice in May 2013
(see slide 13).
Next steps:
I will continue to find ways to deliver school-based initiatives. For instance, next year there will be another Science
and Technology Week and a lunchtime science club will be started. I will also make more home-school connections
through parents who work in areas of science.
Document References