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STEM Ambassadors make a difference

 February 14 2018 | Sussex | Views: 1746

The reason the STEM Ambassador programme has worked at Ifield is because us, (STEM leads) are like one big family bringing together universities, businesses, STEM Sussex, ambassadors, and everyone has same passion, they are doing it because they love their subject and they want the kids to love it too”, Dave Curran, STEM Lead and Head of D&T at the Ifield Community College.

At the Ifield Community College in Crawley STEM has gone beyond STEM ambassador visits and trips to local businesses, through a dedicated STEM lead, ambassador Dave Curran, STEM has a presence across the whole school and is slowly becoming embedded in all learning and activities. This is reflected in a number of ways where STEM activities have grown and developed in a way that they transform the experience students have of STEM subjects as a result of partnership with business, universities and STEM learning. As a result, the number of students at Ifield taking STEM subjects has increased and the number of students accepting university places and receiving offers of apprenticeships in the field of STEM increases every year. Dave Curran, in his new role as Options and Pathways Co-ordinator has been able to form strong routes from STEM activities into work placements, careers events and apprenticeships.

Partnership with Thales, West Sussex and Gatwick Airport
A visit from an industry STEM ambassador from multi-national company Thales, based in West Sussex, has led to a long-term partnership with the company. As Dave Curran identifies industry experts deliver workshops in a more technical way focusing on problem-solving skills and encouraging students to think outside the box in a way they can apply once they are in employment. Dave, also, developed a partnership with Gatwick Airport through a fellow STEM Ambassador and this has led to opportunities for pupils to visit the site and create a detection device for the shuttle. Many other employees at the airport have since become ambassadors and they now offer work placements to Ifield’s students.

Partnership with STEM
The partnership with HUBSEE provides regular, engaging opportunities for pupils to get hands on including workshops with robots, programming, electronics and it also provides consistent deeper interactions to support children’s learning and progression. For G.C.S.E students STEM ambassadors visited as mentors working with small groups every two weeks in the run up to exams, ambassadors have helped students prepare for interviews and the STEM Family Challenge ran by David and our hub twice a year invites family members to enter a challenging and fun competition. As a result of the family challenge Ifield Community College have seen an increased interest in STEM related activities and the parents of pupils are more committed to funding part of the activities such as paying for transport to an activities day.

Widening Participation and Careers Work
STEM opens up career opportunities and progression within education too, our ambassador Dave Curran has gone from D&T teacher to Head of the D&T, to STEM Lead, to Options and Pathways specialist. His role has allowed him to mentor with other teachers showing them how to get involved in STEM activities and bring STEM learning back to the classroom. The college is now recognised by Ofsted as having STEM as a significant feature, closely linked to careers and progression. Dave has introduced key principles to the college, based on blended learning; rather than teach each subject separately, he encourages teachers to teach topics together so pupils can learn from different angles. STEM works at Ifield because Dave has gone the extra mile to ensure that his senior leader team believe and see the impact it has, he works in partnership with new teachers and senior leaders to ensure STEM activities run smoothly and in line with the school guidance.

Impact of STEM Ambassadors across the school measured by uptake of subjects. Monitoring of a year 7 cohort:
Ifield Community College have begun to collect data based on the students exposed to STEM interventions at key stage 3. Initial data collected between 2007 to 2016 looking at a Year 7 cohort suggests that as these students have reached Year 12 there is an increased uptake of subjects including maths, physics, chemistry, product design, and ICT. This is a considerable increase when compared with the number of students taking those subjects the previous year. One of the key variables is an increased participation in STEM related activities both in and out of school, further investigation is needed to validate these findings. This data is the start of a longitudinal study undertaken by the Ifield Community College that will look to measure the difference,

Former Ifield Community pupil, Jammie Mitchell now studies at the University of Brighton and is one of their most active STEM ambassadors. He attributes his experience of STEM and his relationship with Dave Curran as a significant factor in thinking about his future and having the confidence to believe he could enter university.

“I was never an A* student by any means, always getting just enough to pass was good enough to me, but after STEM was introduced to me through the compact plus scheme that Ifield community college provided I feel as if there was a noticeable difference with the grades I was getting within Science and DT, even Maths. After the first ambassador met me back in year 11, I focused more on the STEM subject areas and no longer aiming for 'just good enough' but instead pushing myself and really seeing what I can do. When it came to university I knew nothing. I would be a first generation student so I could not ask anyone about university life so when Mr Curran suggested university tours or sites visits I would take the opportunity with both hands and the information I received from ambassadors from the University was invaluable. In 2013 University to me was a place that only the top students went to and that I could never possibly fit in however that year STEM and their ambassadors would be running the first ever STEM Summer School which was led by the HUBSEE. This was the point in which I decided I wanted to go to university and even after I got back to school in September a number of teachers had noticed the rise in my work effort and because of that I was getting better grades”, Jammie Mitchell, University of Brighton Civil Engineering student, STEM ambassador and former student of Ifield Community College.


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