Leader: Mrs Banks

S.T.E.M. refers to Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics.

However at Greenfields we have S.T.E.A.M.! Yes, ART is also part of our S.T.E.M. curriculum. Art skills are often an integral and valuable part in design projects. This became very apparent in our participation in the ‘If you were an engineer, what would you do? Leaders Award, last year. Children from Reception, and years 1 to 4 entered this national competition to design and invent a product. Three of our pupils got through to the North East finals and their work was displayed at the Discovery Museum. All the children used their art skills to explain and display their engineering product designs. Following this success, children will be entering this years competition as well as the ‘Billion Ideas’ competition. Again, pupils from year 4 represented Greenfields at the regional final last year.

By inspiring and motivating our children, our aim is to ensure that all children see the values and opportunities these subjects offer. Through our creative enquiry based curriculum we teach the S.T.E.A.M. knowledge and skills that they will need, to take an active role in our increasingly scientific, and technological society.

Where possible, we also reach outside the classroom to enhance and enrich the school curriculum by making links with the world of work, so that children can relate school S.T.E.A.M. subjects to real world experiences. Through taking part in lessons, workshops, demonstrations and activities linked to businesses and industry, children at Greenfields can gain insights into the various job roles open to them and get excited about the new directions their studies could take them in. We have recently committed to working alongside the Education Business Partnership Service so that the children from year 2 to year 6 participate in activities that introduce the children to the world of work. S.T.E.M. ambassadors from many professional careers come and work alongside the children to encourage them to work in teams to take on work roles to produce an end project. Other S.T.E.A.M. projects include our participation in the national Polli:nation scheme. We are currently working on maintaining and improving our pollination areas within school . All year groups have been allocated spaces to maintain and use for S.T.E.A.M. projects and outdoor learning.

Links have been made with North Gosforth academy with Year 5 children attending a S.T.E.M. day and participating in computing, science and maths activities including programming Micro-bots!

Greenfields University courses that have run include Coding club, Programming, Engineering for KS1, Young inventors, Creative Engineering, Gardening Club, Young Botanists plus many more.

All the above projects have already provided our children with valuable experiences that we hope will encourage our children to raise their aspirations, spark their interest in the S.T.E.M. subjects and help them prepare for the demands of the 21st century workplace. Watch this space as we continue to S.T.E.A.M. ahead!