How to ensure Stem really is a primary priority

The first group of pupils in our Young Engineers’ Academy (YEA) had just finished designing and making polystyrene aeroplanes of all shapes and sizes; they were now testing their creations by firing them from a rather crude homemade catapult.

Stood at the door, dodging stray missiles, I realised we had created something special for a primary school.

The development of pupils’ skills in science, engineering and technology - three of the four Stem subjects (with maths being the fourth) - is often given a low priority in primary schools. This is perhaps due to a combination of a lack of staff training and confidence in teaching these subjects, an overloaded curriculum, and the accountability and pressures of testing. The profile of science has been hit particularly hard since being dropped as an annual standard assessment test.

I find this worrying: many pupils are switched off from science by the time they reach secondary school, giving our secondary colleagues an uphill task to get children into Stem subjects.

So as a staff we looked at how we could turn this around. We are an outward-facing, innovative school in one of the most deprived areas not just in Birmingham, but in the whole country. We wanted to inspire our pupils, staff and wider community. We wanted to raise the aspirations of our pupils, and in particular girls, who are nationally under-represented in Stem subjects in later education.

We soon had the idea of creating our YEA in a disused basement in our school building, where pupils could specifically work on Stem projects. This vibrant, dedicated, well-equipped space would be unique, we believed, for a primary school; it would raise the profile of these subjects within our school, and instil an early passion and curiosity of them. But how would we kit it out to be the functional, aspirational space we needed?

Fortunately, in March 2015 we won the national Pupil Premium Award. With this accolade came a substantial amount of extra funding - and we knew just the place we could use it.

A fully equipped Stem centre

By February 2016, we had a fully equipped centre for Stem, complete with all the tech, gadgets and tools needed, ready to open. But as every school leader knows, this sort of facility - indeed, tech in general - is only as good as its application. If we were truly to make Stem at primary work, this centre had to pull its weight.

Nursery to Year 6 are timetabled to visit the YEA for one full day per half-term. We also hire out the facility for other schools to use. To deliver our sessions, we forged a link with Aston University and invited one of its maths students on a work placement. Following training, she now prepares and leads quality Stem sessions, supported by class teachers and teaching assistants.

Developing our curriculum for the YEA was challenging, as we found it difficult to find many existing models to use as a starting point for primary pupils. So to start with, we created an overview of all the year groups’ topics, as we wanted our YEA projects to link with these and to be in a familiar and “real” context for our pupils.

We then began looking at the skills that each year group must develop within the Stem areas of the national curriculum, as well as how we could link these to each project. This led to some creative ideas for sessions, such as our Year 2s designing and building dinosaur traps, our Year 3s designing and making a chicken alarm to foil Fantastic Mr Fox and our Year 5s experimenting to create earthquake-proof structures.

The impact of the YEA at Parkfield has been very positive, with pupils demonstrating and showing progress of skills across the Stem subjects. This has helped to free up curriculum time, as a range of skills are covered and assessed within these sessions.

One of the biggest benefits has been to pupils’ speaking and listening skills; it is amazing how they are now using a richer range of vocabulary - they’re taking care to explain their ideas and reasoning in greater depth.

Many pupils’ have shown improvements in abilities that are not easy to quantify, such as their team skills, thinking skills, motivation, problem-solving and creativity skills, levels of resilience, confidence, testing skills and evaluative skills. Many of these are key life skills and are essential to other curriculum areas.

What I don’t want to happen is for you to read this feature and think that you need a Stem centre to make it happen. That’s a bonus. What is really at the heart of what we do is proper, meaningful planning for Stem subjects. Stem learning is something that I believe all primary schools should actively encourage; you do not need a YEA to do this, just try some of my tips below.

1. Give the lesson room to breathe

Stem lessons can take place anywhere there is space - and the lessons themselves should be active and exciting. This might involve a simple reorganisation of your classroom environment or a visit to another room, such as a school hall or music room.

2. Make sure Stem has time to thrive

Demand for space on timetables is always high; squeezing in a short Stem lesson each week is often not ideal. It’s more time-efficient to block time, such as dedicating a full day each half-term. This makes it something to look forward to. Pupils can work on a project from start to finish and teachers only prepare the space and resources once.

3. Make it fun and accessible

Successful Stem lessons should be inquiry-driven lessons that allow for multiple right answers and approaches. These should, however, be grounded in real-life contexts, and should draw upon aspects and links between all Stem subjects.

4. Role models are important

Promote the diversity and value of Stem career opportunities within these sessions and through displays, and find as many role models as you can to support the message.

5. Create a failure-friendly zone

One group of pupils created a magnificent triplane during our first YEA session. It was far too heavy to fly and during testing it rather spectacularly crashed. The creativity and thought processes involved, though, both in the design and the subsequent inquiry, were amazing. Developing pupils’ resilience skills is key and they can learn so much from setbacks.

6. Staff training is crucial

It is important that staff feel confident and skilled to lead these lessons. The National Stem Learning Centre is a useful source of local, high-quality staff training. Having key staff in school, who can passionately drive the Stem subjects, is also vital.

7. Ensure you get value for money

Although there are some excellent resources out there to support the teaching of Stem subjects in primary schools, such as Lego WeDo/Mindstorms and K’Nex, costs can quickly mount up. Many Stem activities can be undertaken with minimal costs, such as designing, building and testing paper bridges or launching plastic bottle rockets. Be creative.

8. Get local businesses on board

Many businesses support universities, FE colleges and secondary schools with Stem. It’s good to remind them that primary schools teach Stem, too! This can be a route for additional funding and role models who can help to inspire your pupils. Local businesses are also a good source of free or discounted materials for use in your projects.=

9. Enter competitions

Getting involved in inter-school competitions raises the profile of Stem higher and provides a real-life purpose for it, such as Greenpower racing (see greenpower.co.uk/racing).

10. Use Stem ambassadors

Stem Learning is an organisation that, via its Ambassadors programme, matches suitable local volunteers and schools to work on Stem projects with pupils - and it’s free to sign up to. This could be an ideal way of starting Stem after-school clubs (see stemnet.org.uk/ambassadors).

David Williams is acting headteacher at Parkfield Community School in Birmingham