Presdales School - STEM Major Awards 2019 - WINNER

Huge congratulations to Presdales School in Ware for winning the 2019 STEM Major Award of £10,000.

Nikki Albone (Revenue Generation Coordinator), coordinated a very detailed and persuasive joint bid from science, technology and maths.  The application supported STEM in a wide variety of ways including curriculum enhancement, cross-curricular collaboration, equipment to support new exam specifications, a whole-year group full day activity, a visit and extra-curricular clubs and competition entry.

Firstly, the bid looked to finance equipment for a series of science/technology activities across KS3 from resources to run a new Food Science curriculum extension to equipment for joint, hands-on maths/science experiments.  A full day of STEM activities for Year 8 where they will be building solar-powered cars and a visit to an engineering careers fair for interested Y9 students were also key parts of the bid.

A major strength of Nikki’s bid were that the activities reinforced learning across several subjects in a rolling program that promised real longevity.  As Nikki put it:

In support of this application, a collaborative group from science, technology and maths have produced a programme of work, proposed for Key Stage 3 students, linking and applying skills across the curriculum and providing greater impact to students’ STEM learning.

As if this wasn’t enough, there was even an allocation for the latest VEX equipment to help build up their extra-curricular robotics club and enter the national competition – a fantastic way to excite Presdales’ pupils about engineering and programming in conjunction with other local schools.

Specific items and costs were included for each element of this wide-ranging bid and the benefits and needs for each aspect were clearly and concisely explained.  We are delighted to award the Major Award to Presdales and look forward to hearing how the various projects work out.