ASE 2025 Annual Conference

Changing seasons, changing states, growing and decaying all provide rich learning opportunities for pupils in the EYFS. This session looks at engaging activities for observing over time enquiries spanning minutes, hours, days and weeks.

The ASE Primary committee is delighted to meet and greet any new primary science educators to Annual Conference. Whether you are a lone delegate attending for the first time, or presenting for the first time, do come along and chat with members of the committee who will welcome you and advise you on the various ways you can enjoy your day, and gain some great professional learning amongst like-minded colleagues.

A warm welcome to the primary science networking space! Come along and pick up complimentary refreshments, meet other primary colleagues and find out more about how the Primary Science Teaching Trust (PSTT) can support you. We have expert advice on hand and a wealth of FREE resources to give away, including prize draws for many of our paid resources.  We are delighted that TTS-group and Explorify are joining us in the networking space - please come along and chat to them about the latest resources and how to access their support.  

Our dedicated Chair Trio invite you to drop-in to the “Chair-Chat” sessions on one of the days of Annual Conference 2025. 

Got a question? Ever wondered about what goes on behind the scenes? Ever thought about getting involved in Committee activities? Are you wanting to know more about Professional Registration or writing an article in one of the ASE journals? First time attending our flagship Conference?

We look forward to hearing your questions and will endeavour to answer them or point you in a selection of possible right directions!

Could the inclusion of the science of early brain development in the national curriculum build the skills and knowledge we need to close the attainment gap and build the next generation of parents and citizens? This session will take the form of a panel discussion on the science of early child development and the long-term impact that early experiences can have on the life chances of every child.

It will talk about the changes we could make to society and education through teaching children about early child development and hear from teachers who have done this by teaching the SEEN Curriculum. Speakers will be key players in education, and science leads/teachers who have taught the Kindred² SEEN programme to KS2/KS3 students.

The session will end with a Q&A and discussion with delegates, and we will be keen to hear your thoughts and questions

• Suitable for early years, primary, secondary or policy audience with an interest in curricula and new approaches to teaching.
• The SEEN Programme was developed in collaboration with Oxford University and two Expert Advisory Groups.
• Kindred² is a charitable foundation working collaboratively with partner organisations to improve early education and early child development.
  
  Kindred² is proud to be sponsoring this session for the ASE at its' 2025 Annual Conference.

 

The focus of our research is to inform how classroom science practice can be improved through effective engagement with parents in an out of school science club.

The focus participant samples are families from ethnic diverse backgrounds from The Meadows in Nottingham. Both parents and their children explore different scientific concepts from the EYFS or National Curriculum and develop their use of scientific vocabulary.

Parents are an important factor to the collaboration of home-school communication. In the session, they reflect on their school experiences and reflect on their science learning. They use their own unique experiences and life journey to present scientific learning in the classroom.

Providing contextual learning linked to the seasons/weather/local habitats allows the children to experience science daily and engage in everyday conversations using their scientific literacy.

By providing effectively engaging sessions, we are building a community of families that can envisage careers for their children in the world of science. The children build confidence in themselves as scientific explorers and can feel what it means to think like a scientist.

The co-collaboration of parents has enlightened us on their invaluable support for encouraging and supporting their children’s learning away from school.

As the majority of our families have English as a second language and some children also have SEND, we are proactive in promoting effective use of scientific literacy and scientific vocabulary.

We have observed children’s and their parents’ engagement and enthusiasm grow over the past 18 months. We have identified language as a barrier for communicating abstract concepts but have found that using the right approach and apparatus, we are able to teach the learning objectives clearly.

The approaches we have used are self-narration; short simple direct instructional language for processes and challenge; verbal feedback from the parents, praise and encouragement for the children. Importantly we have found that reflection on the learning also helps consolidate the new learning, ready for the next session.

Interestingly, we have applied adapted approaches to the input but have retained the same outcome for all of the children in attendance. We have noticed that the competency of children’s first language at home also correlates with the engagement of science learning. They can be imaginative and support this with language. They can create pictures mentally with the support of their parents in their first language. We call this ‘family learning’. Many of the families from the marginalised backgrounds express their desire for social mobility for the children and they believe that a firm grounding in science is essential. Many of our parents are highly qualified from the country of birth and apply their knowledge to the sessions explaining what is happening to their children.

The children have developed essential skills such as listening, following instructions, asking questions, sharing, turn taking, drawing, explaining, relating their understanding to others, developing writing skills and collaborating in family learning.

Join in with Primary Swap Shop Pops Up, where primary teachers have an opportunity to pop their project, free resource or artefact onto a table top for discussion and networking/swapping ideas etc, with other primary educators.

If you have something that you would like to share with conference delegates, please contact Sheetal Kowalczyk by email at s.kowalczyk@bro.gdst.net . Spaces are limited!

Contributions should be no larger than 40cm x 80cm - and fit on a table top
Whatever you show, should take no longer than 5-10 minutes to arrange on the table
Contributions should be inspiring and thought provoking, something that teachers may not have seen before
Ideas should be tried and tested - so that teachers can feel assured that they can replicate your idea back at their school.

If you have had an article published about your idea in Primary Science Magazine or another journal, please have a copy of that on the table alongside our display, so that teachers can read more about it. If you are happy for teachers to contact you, please feel free to leave your card or material on your table for teachers to take away.
Everything shared in the Primary Swap Shop is free of charge and without agenda, that creates the special friendly atmosphere of the pop-up!

Enquiry types are an important part of the disciplinary knowledge in the primary science curriculum (England). This session, presented by the authors of the new edition of the book ‘It’s not fair – or is it?’, will use the latest thinking on this aspect of science education to help you to:

•distinguish between the science enquiry types, considering where confusion may arise
•identify which is the most useful enquiry type for particular contexts and questions
•plan for progression in teaching children how to carry out science enquiries from the early years through to upper key stage 2

This session is related to the ASE/Millgate book It's not fair - or is it?

If you are a primary science educator, come along to the "Meet the Primary Committee" session at the end of Friday of Annual Conference 2024.

Got a question? Ever wondered about what goes on behind the scenes? Ever thought about getting involved in Committee activities? Are you wanting to know more about Professional Registration or writing an article in Primary Science or one of the ASE journals?

We look forward to listening to your questions and will endeavour to answer them!

This invitation only reception has been arranged by CLEAPSS and is an opportunity to launch their Primary Ambassadors' work moving forward.