November 28, 2022
An all-girl education at NHSG means that every girl can follow her dream and be who she wants to be without the limitations of gender.
That’s why we engender a deep love of learning and for all things STEM from the moment a girl joins NHSG. And it’s been a busy start to the academic year for girls in Junior School……..
Our expert EYFS team have been implementing their playful maths curriculum in Nursery and Reception this term and they talk about the mathematical milkshake in this excellent podcast.
https://earlyexcellence.com/eex-podcasts/
One example of this in action this term is in Reception where the girls have been exploring the composition of the number 5 inspired by ‘five friends counting’. Girls counted their own stories about five friends to explore the different numbers and then made a digital class book.
In other STEM lessons designed to inspire, Reception received a letter from the gingerbread man asking for their help to cross the river. They set to work to help, and decided a boat would be the best solution. They designed and created their own boats and then baked their gingerbread men to test the boats!
Year 1 are already honing their engineering skills in a number of ways and most recently they’ve been responding to a design brief. Working in teams, they have been designing wheels and axels with great success.
It’s so important that girls learn to take risks in their learning, understanding that they don’t have to get the answer right first time, and that the journey of trial and error supports their understanding. The chalk pens we have in school allow the girls to write their answers in a way that can easily be changed and therefore encouraging them to take a risk. Year 2 have had a great time investigating numbers in Mathematics. The chalk pens have been a huge hit and are a super way of facilitating collaboration, risk-taking and enjoyment in Maths!
Year 3 have embarked on our Design and Technology journey by exploring the features of castles. The girls have looked at different castles and analysed what is similar and different about them as well as whether they are stable structures. They’ll be applying their knowledge to build their own castle structure and we can’t wait to see the results.
As well as focusing on the investigation of the properties of solids and liquids in Science, Year 4 have also been busy with their own Design and Technology project on pavilions. They’ve made a range of structures to inform their decision making for their pavilion project providing an excellent foundation for the next stage of the project – the build!
No Bridge too far for Year 5 means they’ve also been developing their engineering skills in our Thursday after-school co-curricular club, Bright Sparks. As part of the club’s Science focus they have designed a bridge strong enough to hold bright gems.
Turning to Science lessons, Year 5 have also been learning about the circulatory system. They’ve been calculating how long it takes for blood to travel from the heart to the site of the injury in an artery and how long it takes or the blood to return to the vein.
Year 6 have had an excellent Autumn term exploring STEM opportunities in lessons and beyond. They’ve even been looking at future career opportunities at October’s
Bring it On event and were very inspired after learning first-hand about Engineering opportunities available here in the North East.
Innovative teaching and learning continues to excite them and they have recently explored shapes, space and symmetry and how important accuracy is in maths. Working in teams they put their learning into practice by creating wonderful small and large snowflakes.
This is just a snapshot of some of the STEM learning experiences and opportunities here at NHSG.