Join us for a thought provoking and hands-on session where we’ll provide stimulus to consider your curriculum enrichment provision, barriers and solutions to equity of opportunity for all We’ll share reflective tools, identify local and national enrichment opportunities and resources to make the connection between core curriculum content and nurturing curiosity of your learners. This session is built on exploration beyond the core curriculum but with scientific rigour intact.
Outcomes: • Reflect on your own context and enrichment offer • Made connections between core curriculum and enrichment opportunities for all • Considered ways to build on your current enrichment activities in school • Take away ideas and resources for use immediately including a gap analysis tool and a curriculum map
Background: Our experience of listening and working with teachers tells us that curriculum pressures continue to be relentless and time for teaching science in the core curriculum is already under pressure in many primary classrooms. We know teachers plan and deliver great core lessons, they inspire their learners to be curious about the world around them but do they ever really get the chance to nurture that curiosity?
Research tells us that enrichment opportunities are vital for providing space for learners to explore their interests in a less structured environment.
With so many years of experience running clubs, My Science Club was founded on the basis of creating a space for children’s curiosity to be fostered and grow whilst supporting the educator at the same time. This remains our passion and with a new curriculum in England and Scotland on the horizon, we have a moment to consider what we currently have whilst building for the future. In that moment sit our children in schools right now – they can’t wait for us to tread water getting to grips with new curricula, they need equity of opportunity right now before they leave primary or lose that curiosity and interest.
Our experience and knowledge as nationally accredited trainers of the Primary Science Capital Teaching Approach (PSCTA) has fuelled our passion for equity of access to enrichment activities and not just for the privileged few.
Primary Science Professional Development Leader, Primary Science Geeks
I have been delivering high quality professional development for leaders, classroom practitioners, trainees and ECTs for over 20 years. I am a Chartered Science Teacher (CSciTeach) and have been involved with ASE for many years, most recently as curriculum drafter for the new National... Read More →
This session will present the design, implementation, and findings of a three year research and improvement project focused on raising the quality of science teaching and learning in high deprivation settings.
We worked with 32 primary schools to explore what improves science teaching — and what holds it back. You’ll hear how schools used science audits, teacher surveys, targeted CPD, and network meetings to build teacher confidence and strengthen classroom practice. We’ll share what changed, what teachers valued most, and how high-quality CPD helped schools understand their challenges and make improvements.
We’ll also discuss the real world barriers schools face — including high subject leader turnover — and what helped them keep making progress.
Participants will gain: • Evidence of impact, including clear improvements in teacher confidence, positive shifts in science teaching practice and excellent participant feedback on CPD quality • Insights into systemic challenges, particularly: - High turnover of science subject leaders and its effect on continuity - Practical strategies for supporting science subject leaders in high deprivation contexts - An approach for using deprivation related data to understand school needs and tailor support - Recommendations for sustaining improvement, even in schools with leadership instability
Background: Primary science teaching provision gaps in England remain strongly linked to socioeconomic deprivation. Schools serving communities with high levels of disadvantage often face additional barriers: limited departmental stability, fewer opportunities for sustained professional development and sometimes significant behavioural challenges.
This project worked with 32 schools across three ‘priority’ areas in the south-east of England (Edmonton, Medway and the North Thames Estuary) to understand their specific needs and to trial targeted support. The initiative combined school level diagnostic audits, teacher surveys, structured CPD, mentoring and ongoing collaboration through network meetings. The aim was to build capacity, strengthen subject leadership, and improve the quality of science teaching in a way that is responsive to each school’s context.
CPD and support was delivered across schools by Kulvinder Johal, Primary Science Mentor for the Primary Science Teaching Trust. Content was created by drawing on years of experience working in the classroom, backed up by research and findings on good primary science teaching in the sector.
The Office for National Statistics published estimates of green jobs in July 2025. 61% of these were STEM-based, especially in engineering and tech and only 3% were nature-based. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has estimated up to 725,000 new roles could be created in low-carbon sectors like renewable energy generation and electric vehicle manufacture.
EngineeringUK has developed a set of curriculum resources, the Climate Schools Programme, in several Key Stage 3 subjects and a simple model for how to use the subject of environmental sustainability to engage students in thinking about engineering and tech careers.
The resources and model are based on solutions to environmental problems, rather than the problems themselves, and naturally extends to the current and future careers associated with those solutions. Attendees will have a chance to explore how they might put these ideas into practice in their setting.
Why do shadows change throughout the day? What causes the seasons? How can observations of the sky help students develop mathematical understanding?
This interactive session uses astronomy and Earth-space science phenomena as a context for mathematical inquiry and STEM sensemaking. Participants will engage in practical demonstrations and hands-on activities related to shadows, seasonal change, Earth’s motion, scale, geometry, and observation. Through simple classroom-friendly models and collaborative investigations, the session will highlight how mathematics can serve as a powerful tool for interpreting and explaining scientific phenomena.
The session will emphasize inquiry-based and cross-curricular approaches that encourage curiosity, observation, prediction, reasoning, and discussion. Activities are designed to be adaptable for upper primary, early secondary, and teacher education settings and will include ideas for both indoor and outdoor learning experiences.
Participants will leave with practical strategies, lesson ideas, and resources that support interdisciplinary STEM teaching while helping students see mathematics as meaningful, relevant, and connected to the world around them.
As a result of attending this session, participants will be able to: • use simple models and demonstrations to explain shadows, seasons, and Earth’s motion • facilitate interdisciplinary STEM activities that integrate science inquiry and mathematical reasoning • adapt astronomy-based investigations for classroom and outdoor learning contexts • support student observation, prediction, and sensemaking through hands-on learning experiences • identify opportunities for cross-curricular connections between mathematics and science
Background: This session draws upon interdisciplinary STEM teaching experiences developed through teacher education, classroom practice, and collaborative work focused on inquiry-based mathematics and science instruction. Our work explores how astronomy and Earth-space science phenomena can provide accessible and engaging contexts for helping students connect mathematical reasoning with scientific observation and real-world experiences.
The approach has been shaped through collaboration with STEM educators and ongoing work in teacher preparation focused on experiential learning, mathematical sensemaking, and cross-curricular STEM integration. Attention has been given to helping learners visualize abstract concepts through movement, modelling, measurement, and observation.
This workshop will bring together two urgent agendas in science education: helping students make sense of climate and media-based claims, and ensuring they can see clear, meaningful progression into green and vocational futures. It will explore how science curriculum and qualification design can better connect scientific knowledge, evidence evaluation, real-world relevance and future pathways.
Participants will explore how science education can connect disciplinary knowledge with climate literacy, media literacy and green skills; consider how qualification design can make science more relevant and future-facing; and think about how curriculum, assessment and pathways can work together to support informed, motivated and aspirational learners.
Participants will leave with practical ideas for linking science teaching to climate and media literacy, a clearer understanding of how green skills and progression routes can be surfaced within KS4 science, and a stronger framework for thinking about relevance, engagement and future-facing qualification design.
