The head of a charitable foundation set to invest millions in a project improving the way that science is taught in Scottish primaries is calling on the nation’s businesses to support its endeavours.

The Improving Primary School Science project is now underway in five councils, funded by £900,000 from the Wood Foundation, the charitable foundation set up by oil tycoon Sir Ian Wood and £100,000 from the government.

The project aims to improve the “confidence and competencies” of primary teachers in teaching science. If it goes well over its first two years, the project will receive a further investment of £1.6 million from the foundation to roll the project out across Scotland.

‘This will have an impact on the number who opt for Stem careers’

However, the UK manager of the Wood Foundation, Ali MacLachlan, told TESS that she hoped industry would back the project - which aims to place a primary science development officer in every council in Scotland - to ensure its legacy.

“There is an opportunity for industry to look at this as a much more impactful way of supporting the development of science,” she said.

The Wood Foundation hopes it can bring greater consistency to the teaching of primary science across Scotland through the scheme.

Sir Ian said of the project: “This will definitely have a positive impact on the number of students opting for careers in sciences, technologies, engineering and mathematics.

“There are some good examples of science education in primary schools, but it is limited,” he added.

Raising the profile of science

The initiative is taking its inspiration from Aberdeen City Council, which set about transforming its primary science offering back in 2011. It had the goal that the city would become known as a centre of excellence for science learning and teaching.

One of the key planks of the Aberdeen approach was the secondment, in August 2011, of a teacher as a science development officer. Their main remit was to raise the profile of science in the city’s primary schools.

The Improving Primary School Science initiative is now providing the cash for five councils - Moray, West Dunbartonshire, East Ayrshire, Edinburgh and Highland - to employ their own primary science development officers. The councils pay £10,000 towards the posts, but the rest of the costs are covered.

Next August, the scheme will be rolled out to five more authorities and, if successful, could be expanded further.

Meanwhile Gayle Duffus, who this week left her post as science faculty head at Edinburgh’s Queensferry High, is set to become the national development officer for the project. She will be based at Education Scotland and responsible for ensuring the co-ordination and sharing of best practice across Scotland’s local authorities (see box, below).

‘There are some good examples of science in primary, but it is limited’

Irene Johnson, the headteacher of Thornton Primary in Fife, which has won awards for its approach to science teaching, described the new initiative as “a great idea”.

Thornton Primary has a dedicated science teacher, and this initiative would bring that kind of expertise into all primary schools, said Ms Johnson.

Some might wonder, however, why business needs to step in at all to ensure that a core part of the school curriculum is delivered well. But Sir Ian said: “The easy answer is that the Scottish government should pay for everything - but the fact is that they don’t have the funds to do it.”

Teaching union the EIS says it has no objection in principle to business being involved in education, but it is important that any benefits are shared.

@Emma_Seith