KS3 science encourages curiosity and inspires investigation. It’s one of the most exciting and fulfilling subjects to teach, with the chance to help your students understand how the world around them works without the pressure of covering content in preparation for exams, as with the KS4 curriculum.
There isn't that much content to cover, and you have 3 years to teach the KS3 Curriculum, which is more than GCSE. It's more the case that there is so much emphasis put into teaching your exam classes, that it's easy to plan less and put less into your KS3 planning.
For KS3 Science, it's about using the time as effectively as possible to ensure that the fundamentals of science are taught effectively. With the right curriculum, you can lay strong foundations to support your students in expanding their knowledge of these areas at GCSE. If you need help, you can try our free, ready-to-use curriculum-aligned KS3 Science resources in your classroom.
It's an opportunity to address misconceptions early, before they become entrenched. Planned effectively, the KS3 curriculum allows you the opportunity to introduce and practice key scientific skills, such as investigation planning, graphing and data analysis, that are essential for success later in the GCSE exams.
Whether you’re just starting out on your journey as a science teacher or you’re looking to improve your lesson planning this year, our guide is here to help. Learn more about the KS3 science national curriculum, common challenges you might face during teaching, and how you can overcome them using trusted science resources.
The KS3 Science curriculum, as outlined by the Department for Education (DfE), provides students with essential scientific knowledge. It builds on what they’ve already learned in primary school and develops the skills and understanding they’ll need when moving onto GCSEs.
The KS3 science curriculum overview covers three main disciplines: biology, chemistry, and physics. Within these subjects, some of the topics you’ll teach include:
The curriculum introduces students to core concepts while helping them develop crucial scientific skills, like how to plan investigations and evaluate evidence. Not only is this essential as they move towards their GCSEs, but also for understanding science in the context of everyday life. It encourages curiosity, experimentation, and critical thinking, while inspiring students to analyse the world around them.
The DfE sets out key aims for the KS3 science national curriculum that we should be trying to achieve in the classroom. The three overarching goals are to ensure the students:
There’s a clear focus on not only understanding science in the classroom, but out in the world. To support this level of understanding, we recommend encouraging students to apply the knowledge they learn through quizzes, games, and practical experiments.
The KS3 Science curriculum covers a huge range of units, often in just a few lessons per week, meaning you don’t have much time to dwell on individual topics. The downside is that rushing through topics can negatively impact comprehension, particularly for students who may need a little longer to grasp concepts. It also makes it harder to pace your lessons throughout the term – which units do you spend the most time on, and how do you ensure students keep up?
Our advice is to embrace flexibility. Plan your lessons, but leave room to revisit key ideas or units that your students need a little more time with. Use AfL to signpost your next steps, be that revisiting a prior learning, addressing a common misconception, or introducing a new key concept. Check in with progress regularly using the quizzes throughout your Propello lessons and gauge understanding as you go.
Your classroom is likely to contain a diverse mix of learners, including those with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) or English as an Additional Language (EAL). With a wide range of terminology and complex subject matter, it’s important that your KS3 science lessons are inclusive. This is where differentiation is a must.
Differentiation involves adapting your teaching and resources to suit the needs, abilities, and preferences of your students. For instance, Propello comes with a range of SEND-friendly features, including screen readers, text translators, and grammar support. Each science unit is adjustable to different reading levels, too, for enhanced understanding across our classrooms.
When ideas are difficult to understand, students can lose motivation. For KS3 science, this is a pretty common problem, with many of the units designed to push knowledge and skills. To engage your classroom and keep every student on task, prioritise variety in your lesson planning.
Carry out investigations, conduct experiments, and encourage hands-on learning alongside presentations to engage different learning styles. Take full advantage of the videos, diagrams, and quizzes in your Propello KS3 free science resources, too, for dynamic science lessons designed to boost comprehension among all students.
Students don’t learn at the same pace. If you level up to the paid version of Propello, you’ll be able to track the individual progress as your class works through the units. You can then tailor assignments according to their current knowledge, ensuring everyone gets the most out of each unit.
You might, for instance, see that one student hasn’t grasped atomic structure, so you send them a helpful summary of key concepts. Another student is ahead of the class, so you send them an extra quiz to push their knowledge. The key here is to base additional learning on individual comprehension for a personalised learning experience that plays to individual strengths.
Perhaps the most universal challenge of all: there simply aren’t enough hours in the week. Between lesson planning, resource preparation, and marking, you’re not alone if you find it hard to keep up. Collectively, UK teachers work an average of 5.5 million hours of unpaid overtime every year, highlighting just how tricky it is to find the time for all your tasks.
Luckily, the right KS3 science resources can help. With a fleet of ready-to-use materials and clear lesson sequences, our free worksheets and quizzes take you through the entire science curriculum so that you can spend less time planning and more time teaching.
It's much easier to plan and teach the topics you specialise in, but it becomes harder when it's a topic you may not have covered since you was at school yourself. For example, if you specialise in Biology and you're now teaching about energy and forces for Physics.
If it's out of your comfort zone, you often spend more time planning to get your head around the concepts and be confident in answering any questions the students ask you. It can even be possible to pass on misconceptions that you still have from your own time at school.
At Propello, we have a number of resources, such as lesson packs, which are linked to the AQA KS3 Curriculum, which can help support your planning and advise you on misconceptions that the students may have.
We’ve talked a lot about how our KS3 free science resources tackle common challenges head-on. Now, let’s take a look at our methodology in action. Speed is the first unit for physics, and you can use our worksheets to guide your lesson planning:
These are just a few examples of how you can start using Propello to inspire your lessons and bring clear cohesion to your approach as you work your way steadily through the KS3 science national curriculum.
Want to take a closer look at our resources? You can sign up to access all of our worksheets, quizzes, and revision jams for free, making it a must for your next lesson planning session.
Explore our KS3 science resources by creating a free Propello account.