Our position

NI Science Festival welcomes the ambition to establish a clearer, more coherent and knowledge-rich curriculum for Northern Ireland, with stronger progression from Foundation Stage to Key Stage 3.

We particularly welcome the proposed Science framework’s emphasis on substantive scientific knowledge alongside the nature, practices and norms of science. The framework already recognises curiosity, scientific questions, observation, evidence, models, testing and evaluation as important parts of learning science.

Our response focuses on how these strengths can be made even more visible and consistently experienced in practice: through regular practical enquiry, real-world application, scientific literacy, communication, meaningful STEM and STEAM connections, encounters with scientists and sustained support for teachers.

Through our work with schools, educators, universities, researchers, science communicators, cultural organisations and industry, NI Science Festival sees first-hand the value of giving young people opportunities to encounter science beyond the textbook and to understand its relevance to their lives, communities and futures.

Our central recommendation is that the NI Curriculum 2028 should secure a clear and progressive entitlement to scientific knowledge, enquiry and application from Foundation Stage to Key Stage 3, with pupils becoming increasingly independent, precise and critical in how they investigate questions, use evidence and communicate conclusions.

Response at a glance

What the proposed Science framework changes

Curriculum 2028 gives Science a clearer disciplinary identity, with defined content and structured progression from Foundation Stage to Key Stage 3. This represents a significant shift from the current primary curriculum, where science is encountered within The World Around Us, and the broader Science and Technology area at Key Stage 3.

NI Science Festival welcomes this increased clarity and visibility for Science, alongside the framework’s emphasis on both substantive scientific knowledge and the nature, practices and norms of science. In particular, we welcome the recognition of scientific questioning, evidence, enquiry and how scientific knowledge is developed.

Our response seeks to build on these strengths. We recommend that the final framework makes the relationship between scientific knowledge and the experience of doing science as strong and consistent as possible, ensuring that practical investigation, real-world application, scientific literacy and communication develop progressively from Foundation Stage to Key Stage 3. Science is a practical subject, children and young people must gain gain the practical skills to utilise their developing knowledge for scientific enquiry.  

As Science develops a stronger disciplinary identity, it will also be important to retain purposeful connections across STEM and STEAM. Connections with Geography, Mathematics, Digital Technology, Technology and Design, Archaeology and creative disciplines can deepen understanding and demonstrate how scientific knowledge is applied, while maintaining the integrity of individual subjects.  This is particularly important as scientific practice is interdisciplinary. We need children and young people to understand that answering scientific questions may require multiple approaches.

1. Protect curiosity and scientific enquiry

Young children are natural investigators, they ask questions about living things, materials, weather, light, sound, space, their bodies and the environment around them. Curriculum 2028 should continue to harness this curiosity and ensure that scientific enquiry develops progressively alongside scientific knowledge.

Science education should develop knowledge alongside a spirit of enquiry. As pupils’ understanding grows, so should their ability to ask meaningful questions, investigate possibilities, work with evidence and reach informed conclusions.

From Foundation Stage onwards, pupils should have regular opportunities to observe, question, predict, explore, investigate, notice patterns and communicate what they discover. As they progress, these experiences should become increasingly structured, rigorous and independent.

Proposed Science learning statements: Foundation Stage to Key Stage 3

NI Science Festival recommends that the Science learning statements make progression in scientific enquiry, practical investigation, evidence, application and communication as visible as the progression in substantive scientific knowledge. The following wording illustrates how this could develop across the four stages.

The intended progression is clear: explore and notice → question and investigate → investigate, analyse and explain → enquire, evaluate and challenge.

A proposed overarching entitlement

Across Foundation Stage to Key Stage 3, every pupil should have regular opportunities to experience science as a process of enquiry and discovery: asking questions, observing phenomena, undertaking practical investigation, working with evidence, developing and challenging explanations, and communicating what they have learned. These experiences should become progressively more rigorous, independent and critical as pupils move through the curriculum.

2. Make practical science a consistent curriculum experience

NI Science Festival strongly supports a knowledge-rich Science curriculum. The draft framework already contains important practical and disciplinary elements; the priority is to ensure these are experienced consistently and do not become secondary to content coverage.  Science is inherently a practical skills based subject.

Pupils should regularly experience science as something they do as well as something they learn about. Practical activity should be purposeful and rooted in scientific knowledge, enabling pupils to test ideas, observe phenomena, collect evidence, encounter unexpected results and refine explanations.

Across the stages, this should include age-appropriate opportunities for observation and exploration; experiments and investigations; fieldwork and environmental enquiry; measurement and data collection; modelling and problem-solving; designing and testing; analysis and interpretation of evidence; and communication of findings. The level of independence, precision and critical evaluation should increase over time.

3. Connect scientific knowledge to the real world

Scientific knowledge becomes especially powerful when pupils can use it to make sense of questions and challenges beyond the classroom. Curriculum 2028 should therefore create space for pupils to apply disciplinary knowledge to authentic contexts affecting their communities and wider society.

These contexts might include health and medicine, climate change, biodiversity, energy, food and agriculture, space, engineering, sustainability, artificial intelligence and emerging technologies. This should complement, not replace, strong disciplinary teaching in biology, chemistry and physics.

For example, pupils studying ecosystems might investigate biodiversity in their school grounds; pupils learning about energy might examine energy use and propose evidence-informed improvements; and pupils studying forces might apply their knowledge through an engineering design challenge. Such experiences help pupils understand why scientific knowledge matters and how it can be used.

4. Develop science communication and authentic audiences

Scientific understanding includes being able to explain ideas, present evidence and communicate conclusions clearly. Pupils should have regular opportunities to communicate scientific learning in different ways and for different purposes.

At Foundation Stage this may begin with talking about observations and discoveries. As pupils progress, they should increasingly communicate through written explanations, discussion, presentations, diagrams, data visualisation, demonstrations and appropriate digital media.

Where appropriate, pupils should also communicate to audiences beyond the teacher: presenting an environmental investigation to the school community, exhibiting a science project, explaining an experiment to younger pupils, producing a science podcast or short film, or presenting an evidence-informed response to a local challenge. An authentic audience gives pupils a reason to consider whether their evidence is robust, their explanation is clear and their conclusions are justified.

By Key Stage 2 and Key Stage 3, this should extend to how science is communicated in wider society, including how evidence and statistics are presented, how uncertainty is explained, and how scientific findings can be interpreted or misrepresented.

5. Strengthen scientific literacy in an information-rich world

Young people increasingly encounter scientific claims through news, social media, advertising, online video and AI-generated content. The curriculum should progressively develop pupils’ understanding of evidence, reliability, source, claim, uncertainty and scientific consensus.

By Key Stage 2, and with greater sophistication at Key Stage 3, pupils should learn to ask who is making a claim, what evidence supports it, where the information comes from, whether the evidence is reliable, whether the conclusion follows from the evidence, and what further evidence would be needed before reaching a judgement.

They should also understand that information, images, statistics and video can be manipulated or generated using AI. Science has a distinctive contribution to wider media and AI literacy because it teaches pupils to test claims against evidence and to recognise the limits of what the available evidence can support.

6. Strengthen meaningful connections across STEM and STEAM

Science, technology, engineering, mathematics, digital technology, design and the creative disciplines increasingly intersect in research, industry and innovation. Curriculum 2028 should protect strong disciplinary knowledge while enabling pupils to make meaningful connections between subjects.

Scientific investigation frequently draws on mathematics and data; engineering applies scientific principles through design and problem-solving; environmental science connects with geography; digital technologies support modelling, measurement, analysis and communication; and art and design can support visualisation and science communication, creatively assisting with the understanding of science.

Interdisciplinary experiences should therefore complement rather than replace subject teaching. They can show pupils how knowledge from different disciplines is brought together to investigate complex problems and develop solutions.

7. Connect pupils with scientists, researchers, innovators and careers

The curriculum should help pupils understand that science is carried out by real people and leads to a wide range of pathways. Schools should be encouraged to connect learning with universities, further education, researchers, employers, museums, science centres, the NI Science Festival, other cultural and information festivals, industry and other organisations that can bring contemporary science into the classroom.

Pupils should encounter scientists, engineers, researchers, technicians, science communicators and innovators from a variety of backgrounds. These encounters can broaden perceptions of who science is for and help young people connect curriculum learning with future study, employment and the scientific and technological challenges that will shape Northern Ireland.

8. Support teachers to deliver ambitious science

A curriculum entitlement is meaningful only when schools have the capacity to deliver it. Implementation should therefore be accompanied by sustained professional learning, appropriate practical resources and equipment, planning support and access to external expertise.

This is particularly important in primary settings, where teachers work across the curriculum and may have differing levels of confidence in particular areas of science. Partnerships with universities, science organisations, museums, industry, science communicators and organisations such as NI Science Festival can complement teacher expertise by providing access to specialist knowledge, facilities, contemporary research and inspiring experiences.

External provision should enrich rather than replace high-quality classroom science, helping teachers and pupils connect curriculum knowledge with science as it is researched, practised and communicated beyond school.

9. What NI Science Festival would like to see in Curriculum 2028

NI Science Festival recommends that the final curriculum:

1. Protect scientific enquiry from Foundation Stage to Key Stage 3, with clear progression from early curiosity, exploration and questioning to increasingly independent investigation, analysis and evaluation.
2. Secure meaningful practical science, so that pupils regularly observe, experiment, investigate, measure, test ideas and work directly with evidence.
3. Connect scientific knowledge to real-world questions and challenges, including health, climate, biodiversity, energy, engineering, sustainability and emerging technologies.
4. Strengthen scientific literacy, developing pupils’ ability to question and evaluate evidence, claims, sources, statistics, misinformation and AI-generated content.
5. Develop science communication and authentic audiences, enabling pupils to explain scientific ideas, present evidence and justify conclusions through written, oral, visual, practical and digital forms, with opportunities to share work beyond the classroom.
6. Enable meaningful connections across STEM and STEAM, allowing pupils to apply knowledge and skills across disciplines while maintaining strong foundations in individual subjects.
7. Increase meaningful encounters with scientists, researchers, innovators and STEM careers, helping pupils understand how science is used beyond the classroom and the breadth of pathways available to them.
8. Invest in teachers and effective implementation, including sustained professional learning, appropriate equipment and resources, and particular support for primary teachers to build confidence in practical and enquiry-led science.
9. Recognise external science, education and cultural organisations as valuable curriculum partners, enabling schools to connect classroom learning with contemporary research, specialist expertise, facilities and real-world scientific experiences.

Conclusion

NI Science Festival welcomes the ambition of Curriculum 2028 to create a clearer, more coherent and knowledge-rich curriculum. For Science, the opportunity is particularly significant.

Northern Ireland should aspire to a curriculum in which every child progresses from wondering about the world to being able to investigate it; from asking simple questions to evaluating increasingly complex evidence; and from learning scientific knowledge to understanding how that knowledge can be used to address real challenges.

A strong science curriculum should enable young people to move beyond knowing scientific facts to understanding how scientific knowledge is developed, tested and applied. Pupils should leave each stage increasingly confident in asking questions, investigating ideas, interpreting evidence, challenging claims and communicating informed conclusions.

NI Science Festival believes the NI Curriculum 2028 can achieve this by ensuring that scientific knowledge and scientific practice are developed together as complementary parts of every young person’s entitlement from Foundation Stage to Key Stage 3.

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