Portals
March 15th 2019
Full STEM Ahead!
This week I have been inspired to write, under the umbrella of Academic Excellence, about our fabulous STEM Day, held yesterday. The day, organised and run by the Year 6 girls, sent a clear message that at St Swithun’s we love the STEM subjects (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths). This is one of the many ways we defy stereotypes and encourage our children to think differently. Women only make up around 12% of the workforce in STEM industries and more than six times as many boys apply to do engineering at university than girls. Here at St Swithun’s we are striving to give our girls the foundations to enable them to pursue a career whatever sector they want—and to know that they are capable of changing the world: and perhaps there is no better way to change the world than through a career in STEM—asking the all important question — how? How can I help? How can I improve that? How can I make a difference?
I would encourage you to talk to your children this weekend about the power of STEM subjects to change the world, and perhaps to try to sew the right seeds so that one day your daughters challenge the status quo and change the world for the better. Above all I would encourage you to chose your questions carefully—avoiding simple questions like ‘What do you want to be when you grow up?’ and replacing them with more challenging questions such as, ‘What problem do you want to solve when you grow up?’ For a great little YouTube video on this—follow this link: YouTube.
This week I have been inspired to write, under the umbrella of Academic Excellence, about our fabulous STEM Day, held yesterday. The day, organised and run by the Year 6 girls, sent a clear message that at St Swithun’s we love the STEM subjects (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths). This is one of the many ways we defy stereotypes and encourage our children to think differently. Women only make up around 12% of the workforce in STEM industries and more than six times as many boys apply to do engineering at university than girls. Here at St Swithun’s we are striving to give our girls the foundations to enable them to pursue a career whatever sector they want—and to know that they are capable of changing the world: and perhaps there is no better way to change the world than through a career in STEM—asking the all important question — how? How can I help? How can I improve that? How can I make a difference?
I would encourage you to talk to your children this weekend about the power of STEM subjects to change the world, and perhaps to try to sew the right seeds so that one day your daughters challenge the status quo and change the world for the better. Above all I would encourage you to chose your questions carefully—avoiding simple questions like ‘What do you want to be when you grow up?’ and replacing them with more challenging questions such as, ‘What problem do you want to solve when you grow up?’ For a great little YouTube video on this—follow this link: YouTube.
We were delighted that one of our school governors, Dr Heather Mycock, was able to visit the STEM Day. Dr Mycock was hugely impressed—as you can see from a snippet of her letter below...
I was delighted to spend a couple of hours at the STEM day visiting every Year 6 stand from the anatomy app to chemical reactions and programming. I particularly enjoyed thinking about how many germs there are in a sneeze and the demonstration of the ‘sneeze’ at various distances!
The girls were so enthusiastic yet engaging in their approach. They demonstrated so many skills. What a lot of tidying up to do but what great organisation. Dr. Heather Mycock
