West Suffolk College chosen to propel STEM Club provision in schools

West Suffolk College based in Bury St Edmunds has been chosen as the STEM Club Champion for Cambridgeshire. The college forms part of a new, 22-strong network responsible for helping teaching professionals inspire more pupils in Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics (STEM) subjects through out-of-timetable clubs.

The network has been set up by STEM Learning, the largest provider of STEM education and careers in the UK, following a grant from the Gatsby Foundation, and builds on the organisation’s popular STEM Club programme.

As STEM Club Champion, West Suffolk College will provide face-to-face support for teachers across Cambridgeshire, as well as in Peterborough and Bedfordshire, through regular workshops that will help them start or develop existing STEM subject clubs.

Representatives from West Suffolk College will work with secondary schools, as well as Sixth Form and FE Colleges, throughout the region, to deliver a programme of STEM club CPD workshops and networking events. These will enable teachers and club leaders to share ideas and best practice, and also meet local STEM Ambassadors who can support their clubs. Teachers will gain access to a range of resources to help maximise the impact of their clubs.  Collectively, STEM Club Champions will target nearly 3,000 schools during the course of the programme.

Enrichment STEM clubs, which often run out-of-timetable, offer an enjoyable way to engage students with related subjects in an informal setting. The clubs are an important outlet to ignite new, or further students’, interest in STEM subjects through more imaginative and inventive teaching methods.  They allow students space to experiment, ask questions and tackle challenges of interest to them unconfined by the structures of the curriculum.

The workshops will cover themes such as how to start a STEM club and making an existing club thrive. Another important focus is enhancing careers knowledge and club leaders will be signposted to the support available from STEM Learning’s network of over 30,000 STEM Ambassadors, who together represent more than 2,500 employers.

The first workshops for teaching staff take place in March 2020, running as follows:

Theme: Getting a STEM Club started

Thursday 5 March – West Suffolk College, Bury St Edmonds, 14.00 – 16.30

Tuesday 17 March – Swavesey Village College, South Cambridgeshire, 14.00 – 16.30

Theme: Enhancing employability skills and careers knowledge through STEM Clubs

Monday 9 March – West Suffolk College, 14.00 – 16:30

Tuesday 24 March – Swavesey Village College, 14.00 – 16:30

Tuesday 31 March – BT Adastral Park, Martlesham, Ipswich, 14.00 – 16:30

West Suffolk College was chosen due to its strong connections with the local school community and experience of supporting and engaging with teachers.

Nadine Payne, Director of STEM Partnerships at West Suffolk College said: “As a college, we see ourselves as playing a pivotal role in supporting teachers to be confident and enthusiastic when organising engaging enrichment experiences for young people in our region. We are very excited to be working with the STEM Club programme. We look forward to promoting practical STEM activities teachers can engage with and use in the classroom as well as offering sustained and continued support to maximise the impact of their clubs.”

The significant expansion of the STEM Clubs programme comes as evidence from STEM Learning’s regular consultations with teachers identified widespread demand for local face-to-face support.  Over the next four years, STEM Learning intends to expand the STEM Club Champion network to offer support to both primary and secondary schools, across the UK.

Dr Alex Brown, STEM Support Programme Manager at STEM Learning said: “STEM clubs are individual to each school, and there is of course, no set formula. However, evidence from our teacher surveys and consultations, including those with no STEM Club experience, highlights a strong desire for face-to-face support at a local level to help them start, sustain and grow their clubs.

“Our STEM Club Champions will act as a hub in their patch and over the next four years deliver hundreds of workshops to drive growth and develop the STEM Club ‘ecosystem’ in their local area.  Our ambition is for every young person in the UK to get the chance to engage with a thriving STEM club and we thank Gatsby Foundation for its continued support.”

Ginny Page, Programmes Director at Gatsby Foundation said: “If we want to inspire the next generation of technicians, scientists and engineers we need to give young people experiences of STEM that are creative, practical and relevant to their interests. STEM Clubs are a fantastic opportunity for young people to gain these experiences, and it’s great that STEM Learning is helping teachers and technicians across the country establish thriving STEM Clubs in their schools”.

To find out more visit www.stem.org.uk/stem-clubs/workshops, or sign-up to a workshop email STEMclubchampion@wsc.ac.uk



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