Explosive Celebrations As LVS Ascot Infant & Junior School Receives Prestigious Science Award
15 Jul 2019
LVS Ascot’s Infant & Junior School is celebrating being awarded prestigious Primary Science Quality Mark status, and marked the occasion on Monday 17th June in explosive style by building and launching rockets to demonstrate their scientific learning. The Primary Science Quality Mark celebrates a commitment to excellence in science teaching, and this was shown to great effect on Monday when their rocket learning culminated in 33 Year 4 students launching projectiles after an engaging and immersive project.
A cross-curricular approach to the rocket project dubbed ‘Operation Bottle’ also saw the use of maths to aid with problem solving, estimating, statistics and calculating areas in the design aspect, whilst English lessons included writing weather reports, articles and a trailer for a movie about a rocket launch. With science at the centre of the project, pupils found out about forces, aerodynamics and pressure and then applied their learning and collaborated with each other to bring the subject to life through preparing their rockets for launch.
Year 4 teacher Robert Clayton said: “It has been wonderful to see the discussion and reasoning that the tasks have generated within the groups and how they have navigated obstacles to their progress. The character strengths taken from the LVS Learning Values and Skills have been prominent as they have needed lots of resilience, confidence to take a risk, empathy to work well with their peers and creativity and curiosity to engage with the idea of launching a rocket!”
The Primary Science Quality Mark (PSQM) was awarded due to the LVS Ascot Infant & Junior’s school’s commitment to, and excellence in, the subject which includes a Year 6 Able Scientists club run by senior school teachers to extend and enrich the junior scientists, and Year 5 pupils take part in the 3M Young Innovators STEM Challenge. Year 6 pupils Dominic and Harrison will be moving into the LVS Ascot senior school having been awarded academic scholarships, due in part to the scientific excellence they have shown under the Infant & Junior School’s inspiring teaching, including being part of the Able Scientists club and taking part in TED Talks (projects based around technology, entertainment and design).
Jane Turner, PSQM National Director, said: “Gaining a Primary Science Quality Mark is a significant achievement for a school. The profile and quality of science teaching and learning in each awarded school is very high”.
Picture:Year 4 pupils at LVS Ascot Infant & Junior School prepare to launch their rockets.