Getting hands on and feeling the force
Teachers build their confidence in delivering purposeful practical classroom physics at primary.
Published: 6 May 2025
This academic year more than 1,000 primary teachers from across England have already participated in our partnership Phizzi Forces CPD programme – developing their own subject knowledge, learning about the most effective pedagogical approaches, and learning how to incorporate purposeful practical work into their teaching to support and deepen pupils’ learning about forces.
Last month, 14 teachers from primary schools across Northamptonshire took part in their Phizzi forces session, engaging with every aspect of the day – asking questions and getting hands on with the practical activities.
“The Phizzi Forces Day has been so valuable in building confidence for teachers in primary schools,” explains ones of the participants. “The most valuable thing for me has be the practical techniques for effective pedagogy for teaching physics ideas – particularly the questioning around demonstrations,” add the Year 5/6 teacher.
“I have loved being encouraged to ask any question,” adds another teacher. “No question is silly. It has really helped me put myself in the position of a child and it has been so good to ask those questions and improve my own understanding of lots of ideas about forces.
The participating teachers all reflected on the increase in confidence that they now had in their physics knowledge about forces and in how to develop and deepen their pupils learning through carefully chosen practical work.
“It has really made me think about the purpose of different practical activities. I can now see how valuable demonstrations are for my teaching, as a way to introduce new vocabulary in a concrete way and to help explain more abstract ideas. I can also see how alternative practical activities can then be used to provide opportunities for my pupils to apply their learning and for me to assess their understanding. I had never thought about using practical activities to support teaching science vocabulary, but I have a feeling this will work really well in my classroom”.
Year 3 teacher, Peterborough
