There are no barriers holding back the children who attend St Swithun’s Prep School in Winchester. They all know that they can be who they want to be in life, and do what they want to do.
This is a key message underpinning the girls’ school’s current focus on Women in Science and Engineering, and all classes in the school are currently investigating possible careers as diverse as dentist, detective, doctor and diver, firefighter, farmer, fossil hunter and physicist, architect and astronaut, chef and coder. A programme of visiting experts has been incorporated into the school’s work; there is even a female volcanologist booked in to talk to year six pupils later this term.
The whole initiative got off to a fantastic start in late September when published author Lisa Rajan, whose books about Tara and Danni Binns emphasise women practitioners in Science, Technology, Engineering and Medicine, visited the school. She delivered two talks, both of which were split between her passion for science and her love of creative writing. Children found her fascinating and left the sessions replete with renewed enthusiasm to foster their own skills in both the laboratory and the author’s studio.
Headteacher Jonathan Brough commented “two of our most important points of emphasis this year are careers education and a reinforcement of everyone reading for pleasure. Therefore it was a real delight to welcome Lisa Rajan and to see our three year olds, who were held spellbound by their first visiting speaker throughout her hour-long talk, responding just as enthusiastically as those in their final year of primary school. Technology and literature received equal emphasis, resulting in a very successful pair of speeches.”
