STEM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths.  

We are delighted that pupils from Holywell have been selected to be part of the panel of young people across the country who will review a short list of Science books for The Royal Society's Young People's Book Prize.  We have been excited to begin reading and talking about our opinions of the books.

It was fantastic to have Merck's Curiosity Cube and volunteers from the University of Birmingham at Holywell. Children and staff found the visit really engaging and inspiring.  The Curiosity Cube^® is a retrofitted shipping container that has been transformed into a mobile science lab. It features interactive hands-on science experiments and has been designed to inspire curiosity in the next generation of scientists.

Years 4, 5 and 6 learnt about that make up our microbiome.  Using microscopes, pupils identified and explored the bacteria that is all around us.  With the help of a “bacteria robot”, pupils helped Mike Robiome make healthy choices to improve his microbiome.  Children were excited to find out that everyone's microbiome is unique and created a replica of their very own microbiome. 

We had a very exciting day when the Royal Institution came into school.  During the school day there were two shows for the children and after school there was a family show.   A huge thank you to the PTA  who very generously funded this event. 

Nursery had an exciting STEM Day inspired by the book 'Be a Maker' by Katey Howes.  They explored the coloured jigsaw pieces on the light table.  They used them to create different shapes and looked carefully to see what would happen when a piece went on top of a different colour.  They used tubes and guttering to create a course for the toy cars to go down.  The children chose from a selection of resources to create their own musical instruments. They talked the texture of jelly, chopped strawberries for their own fruit jelly and discussed how jelly is made. 

In the afternoon they used battery packs with wires, LEDs, playdough, feathers, buttons, straws and coloured match sticks to create light up monsters.   The children also created dens and a tunnel using chairs, carboard and fabric.  At the end of the day they really enjoyed eating their jellies.  They had so much fun, that some of the activities are going to be available next week.  We are fortunate to have  some awesome Scientists and Engineers in Nursery.

As part of the Great Science Share, Reception had great fun investigating which minibeasts are living in the Foundation Stage playground.  The children asked "Where do the minibeasts live?'.  They discussed the places they might see them and then went outside with their spotter sheets to see what was there.  Then we discussed the minibeasts they might see at Forest School and the minibeasts they might see at home or in the park.   We wondered if they would be the same or different and if they were different why.

Reception are growing Sunflowers.  They are looking carefully to see what happens to their plants.  Reception are taking part in the Great Science Share.  They have watched a video of plants growing and thought of questions they would like to find the answers to.  The children asked the rest of the class or  looked up the answers together on the computer.

Launch UK and the UK Space Agency are launching a competition to find a logo to go on rockets launched from UK spaceports in 2022! Reception and Year 1 have been designing logos for the competition that shows the role of small satellites in measuring how our world is changing.

We have had some new STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) Equipment installed on our KS1 playground.  This includes Den Making Posts, a Gravity Table, Rainbow Den and a set of Free-Standing Chimes. We have also received STEM resources for the classrooms.  This has been possible due to a very generous grant from the Millennium Point Trust based in Birmingham.

The children had lots of fun creating tracks and placing different coloured action blocks on the track.  Each block tells the train to do something different.  For example stop, change direction, make a noise, turn a light on and off.

We are delighted to have been given a grant from 'The Millennium Point Charitable Trust' for our project 'Exciting STEM in KS1'.  These photos show the new Brio construction kit and some of the models children in Year 1 have made.  There are lots more exciting resources that will arrive throughout the year.