ABSTRACT
In England the non-statutory QCA scheme of work for science (DFEE 1998) provides a highly structured programme of study covering science for pupils from the age of 5 to 11 years. With its 33 units and four short revision units it provides a balance of biological and physical science topics each fitting into about half a term. The QCA scheme can be seen as falling somewhere between medium-and short-term levels of planning. It received some support from a small-scale qualitative study by Gillard and Whitby (2007), but there were also concerns that it may ‘stop teachers being creative and really thinking through what they are doing and why’ (ibid: 221).
