Prep STEM Week, Monday 14 March – Friday 18 March

Tuesday 08 March 2022 | By Megan Connor

This year, the Prep School will once again be running an exciting STEM week to promote the subjects of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics and the wide range of opportunities within these fields.

During the week, the children will have the chance to experience a range of different activities to explore the breadth of these subjects further, as well as taking a glimpse into some of the career opportunities that could arise if these subjects were studied beyond school. The theme for the week will be ‘Growth’, and will provide much food for thought over the course of the week.

As a way of launching this brilliant programme of activities, we would like to invite all of the Prep children to come to school on Monday 14 March dressed in a costume or outfit that suits our theme for the day which is Space and the growth of Space Exploration. This could be anything from astronauts, aliens, space scientists or rocket engineers! The possibilities really are endless.

The day will also see activities take place such as working with moon dust! Children in Years 3-6 will also take part in Mars Hour, as we link up with the European Space Agency to bring inspiring guest speakers direct to our classrooms.

Tuesday 15 March will see the children in Early Years and Pre-Prep taking part in a paper aeroplane investigation to develop their Science skills. Later in the day they will be considering the growth of buildings from their foundations upwards. The Prep children will be treated to a visiting speaker, Professor Christopher Newman, to explain his career in space law. This will then be followed by a variety of activities including a robotics project, a mathematical design challenge to consider the possibilities when packing equipment in a spaceship and how to calculate the age of a shark!

On Wednesday 16 March, the children will be spending the first part of the morning developing their ideas for an enterprise challenge. We will be launching a Grow a £2 Challenge where the children will have to work either as a group or individually to see how much they can grow £2 by employing their entrepreneurial skills. Later, Pre-Prep children will be having lots of fun as they consider the growth of animals. Prep children will also continue with their carousel of activities, hearing from a second speaker from engineering company, Komatsu. The day will conclude with the consideration of the growth of veganism, with debate and demonstration at the heart of this task.

On Thursday 17 March, all of the children will be taking part in a collective technology project as a way of growing and developing their design and assembly skills. Each child will complete their own piece of assembly which will then be combined to create a large, collective piece of work. Also that morning, the children in EYFS and Pre-Prep will be taking their learning outdoors to take part in a special outdoor gym to help grow and encourage their healthy lifestyles. The Prep children will be hearing from another guest speaker, Ms Lesley Wratten from Lemon Business Solutions; a perfect example of how successful STEM businesses can grow from humble beginnings. The Prep children will finish their day by considering growth mind set and its importance in their learning journeys.

Friday 18 March will see the children completing various activities to conclude the week. EYFS children will be thinking about how healthy eating promotes healthy growth and Pre-Prep children will be sharing their learning from the week by creating some eye-catching posters. The Prep children will be thinking about the growth of technology over time and creating some imaginative designs to explore potential technological advances for the future.

We sincerely hope that the children get a great deal out of these experiences and that it will give them some enthusiasm for some of the possible careers that they might like to aspire to in STEM in the future.