Sharing STEM Success

Continuing our drive towards official status as a STEM Centre of Excellence, we are pleased to announce Peter Marshman, our STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics) guru and Head of Computer Science, was invited by the British Council to meet delegates from France’s largest local authority on Friday 25^th January.

The delegation from Versailles were keen to understand how we handle digital challenges, deliver unique STEAM experiences for young people and how we build girls’ self-efficacy in Computer Science.

“It was fantastic to share our School’s award-winning approach to curriculum enrichment through our iSTEM+ project,” commented Peter, “I was able to highlight how departments can work together in order to build STEM capacity and inspire the next generation of digital learners.”

Students have benefitted from a multitude of STEAM opportunities over the last few years and continue to do so, whether through Club STEAM or trips to enhance their classroom learning.

We are looking forward to welcoming a number of the delegation to Leighton Park School so that they can witness our STEAM education in action in order and gather case studies for teaching schools in Versailles.

Reflecting on his visit, Peter said, “It is my hope that with this guidance, schools in France will be able to support their need for industry skills such as Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning and Big Data.”

An example of our departments working together and further inspiring members of the community more local to home, our STEAM offering has also been extended to a number of primary schools who will be visiting us to enhance their engagement and learning of STEAM subjects.

Towards the end of February, primary schools will be coming to Leighton Park to take part in the international project, TeenTech City of Tomorrow. Working in teams of three led by two of Leighton Park’s young STEM Ambassadors, each group will apply their knowledge of science, technology and engineering to design an innovative building of the future using recycled household materials. The project aims to promote good citizenship, sustainability, teamwork and creative problem solving in the creation of a building that improves quality of life by being kinder to the environment and safer for its inhabitants.

Continuing with the STEM events, in March more local primary schools will be visiting the school to take part in the third annual Big Bang Interactive STEM Event where engaging, interactive STEM workshops will be held by STEM professionals from leading organisations across industry and academia. In addition, there will also be a lively anchor presentation by Science Boffins, an organisation well practised in delivering entertaining STEM-themed topics to children.