STEAM

STEAM March 2024

STEAM, in spring across the school, aimed to build the creative problem-solving and critical thinking skills pupils could need in the 21^st Century workforce.

Over the week, classes completed their STEAM activities: Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Maths: Technology also linked to DT &/or Computing. Each of the STEAM's subjects shared a common approach: they required gathering and using evidence to solve problems and share knowledge.

Pupil Voice from the children said they used their problem-solving skills to solve STEAM activities, answering open-ended questions that challenged them to think creatively and critically. Also, children talked about March National Careers Week and that all the STEAM subjects will help their future careers and that it was the 30^th anniversary of British Science Week in March looking at ‘Time’.

The UKS2 children developed their technological precision skills when cutting, measuring and assembling their wooden frames to problem-solve and think critically for their automata toys before continuing to add the figures and moving parts!

The LKS2 children were visited by Paul Raymond, a local artist, who came in to explore creating abstract sculptures. They were inspired by Anthony Caro's sculptures, looking closely at negative and positive spaces, experimenting using a range of techniques such as twisting, folding, slotting, making concertina, creating tabs and rolling. They problem solved throughout, were critically challenged and their ‘pupil voice’ said they really enjoyed coming up with a range of solutions! 

KS1 children learnt about linkages, levers and how things move to solve the problem of making three different linkage systems which they could use to move a monster. In Y2, they creatively designed two different monsters and their peers voted for their favourite one. The children developed their technology, art and maths skills when problem-solving how to creatively design a ‘moving monsters’!

As well as the above STEAM activities and visitors in LKS2, in the Early Years, STEAM learning happens naturally everyday (inside and outside the classroom) as children explore, play, and try new things (characteristics of effective learning), for example, ‘splatterns’ and ‘sneaky-shadows’!

What a fantastic Spring STEAM!

Mrs Kevan

STEAM: Welcome to the Year 5 Glider Challenge!

On Wednesday 10^th January, the Year 5 children soared into a world of innovation and creativity with a series of captivating activities. Today’s STEAM Challenge was a virtual workshop, with Faith, an Aerospace Engineer, who brought the excitement of aerospace engineering right into our Y5 classroom!

The day began with a high-flying adventure! The Y5 children teamed up to design, build, and test three unique gliders, each a masterpiece of form, shape, and materials. The sky was the limit as they unleashed their creativity and engineering skills! In the afternoon, the mission continued with the Sustainability of Aerospace activity. Children planned and designed the sustainable aircraft of tomorrow, crafting posters to showcase their revolutionary ideas! The children presented their reasons for why their sustainable aircraft design of the future should enter a competition to represent our school with the chance to win a prize!

The aims of the STEAM project:

- discover the magic of flight and the role of aerospace engineers

- master the art of balancing forces during flight and build test gliders

- dive into wing shape, aircraft design, balance, and forces

- uncover the fascinating world of aerospace engineering

- apply scientific methods to test and refine gliders

Pupil Voice: All the children and staff said they day was amazing and shared fantastic feedback:

It was brilliant!

I know now I want to be an aerospace engineer and Faith proves I can do it!

I liked it because I did find out which of my 3 gliders was the best and why.

Faith, the engineer was really inspiring.

The pack was really helpful with the support from Faith and her virtual instructions.

I kept going and could do the challenges even though they were tricky!

I loved investigating how far our gliders would travel but typical when the rain came!

In May, our next session will consist of a live streamed event that introduces our Year 5s to real life STEAM role models: an opportunity to meet and engage with engineers, pilots and scientists – we can’t wait!

Mrs Kevan

Spring 1 VEX Robotics Competition

On Monday 15th January our VEX Robotics Team went to NISSAN to compete in the Robotics Championships. They completed a variety of challenges, including driving their robot around a field to gain as many points as they could by knocking over blocks, collecting blocks and parking. They also completed coding challenges where their robot continued to collect blocks and complete its obstacle course. The children also worked alongside other schools, they had to ensure they had a game plan so that each school could work to its strengths. As well as this, the team were interviewed by a set of judges, where they discussed how they have continued evaluating and creating solutions to problems they have come up with. The children were absolutely AMAZING!!!!! They have had an extremely successful day where they have learnt new skills and developed their engineering and coding skills! Mrs Jones and Mr Livings are super proud of you

STEAM – careers to inspire!

In December, career-related STEAM activities improved our children's knowledge about the world of careers and to inspire them for the future! 

STEAM: Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, Maths. For example,

Artists: for example, if the children in art learnt about an ‘impressionist’ artist, they were introduced to other impressionist artists or if abstract art, then other abstract artists.

Scientists for example, if the children in science learnt about plants, they were introduced to linked careers, e.g., floral designer, landscape or crop scientist.

Engineers e.g., watching links (i.e., BBC Bitesize Careers) with people with the variety of careers: environmental/biomedical/system/ electrical/chemical/nuclear/aerospace. 

Technology e.g., linking with our Nissan trip, VEX IQ and Omnicom staff; or, watching links with people with a variety of careers: Design Technology/software engineering/web development/network engineering/data science/IT support.

Mathematicians e.g., watching links with people with the variety of careers: accountant, teacher, meteorologist, careers in finance.

Pupil Voice:

'Heart surgeons have such an important job as they save so many people's lives. I think they should earn more than footballers.' 

'I'd like to be a palaeontologist when I'm older as it fascinates me how much we can learn from the past from looking at different fossils!’

‘The maths needed for sport is unbelievable! I'd like to be an NFL player because I go to watch their games every year.'

‘I liked looking at STEAM careers such as volcanologist and geologist, because I learn about this in geography and science.’

‘I liked looking at what you might get paid across all areas – what different salaries!’

‘We played a careers game called, ‘When I grow up, I want to be’. Other children said they wanted to be a nursery teacher, a midwife, a paediatrician, a vet, a police officer, a fashion designer, a beauty therapist, a goldsmith, a hairdresser and an architect.’

Brighton Avenue staff said the children were really keen to explore career opportunities because they didn’t know all the different titles and links to what we learn now:

- Wildlife Biologist: a child was keen to explore ways to help the environment and continue to look after the animals and their habitats, sharing this is a career they would love to do. 

- Habitat engineer: a child was passionate to find out other ways we can help and look after the environment; they were shocked to find out how much of an impact, humans are having on changing animal habitats. 

Mrs Kevan

Deputy Headteacher.

Autumn 2 - Visit from Dr Steve Bunce from The Partnership for Robotics, Royal Grammar School Newcastle

Dr Bunce came to work with our VEX IQ team, together we worked on a strategic plan for our competition. After some problems with coding, we reset the motors and re-programmed our inputs and came up with a range of solutions. We had a fantastic afternoon and achieved so much!

STEAM: Autumn 1, 2023

On Tuesday and Thursday 24^th and 26^th October, the Year 5s went to Nissan, Sunderland, to take part in a coding and programming workshop: the children and staff said it was amazing!

The coding and programming workshop, allowed the Nissan Skills Foundation to engage with the Year 5s and deliver a coding programme that made daunting topics like the engineering behind an electric vehicle fun and to encourage children to consider careers of which they may have never dreamed!

The Nissan Skills Foundation was created to engage young people across the North East in the world of engineering, manufacturing and design whilst also raising aspirations. At Nissan, they aim to inspire the next generation to discover new passions in STEAM by delivering a range of fun and exciting programmes: the children said it was inspirational to see the range of careers they can have!

Nissan Skills Foundation Core Objectives:

• Raise interest in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics in primary, secondary and tertiary schools
• Raise the aspirations of local youngsters to show that social issues, economic background and gender are not barriers to a potential career in Engineering and Mathematics
• Raise awareness of opportunities and the desire to work in the Manufacturing and Engineering sector
• Engage with the broader community

Autumn 1, 2023

VEX IQ After-school club

Following on from the success of our VEX IQ extra-curricular club in the 2022-2023 National Championships (see last years STEAM and the DT pages), the children and staff are excited to continue the VEX IQ club with Mrs Jones and Mr Livings.

VEX Robotics is one of the leading platforms for educational robotics around the world. With the plastic VEX IQ platform for Key Stages 2 and the metal VEX EDR Cortex and V5 kits for Key Stages 3, 4 and 5 it is perfectly placed to allow students to grow and develop in an open-ended, problem-solving and engaging way. The programming software, ranging from Modkit, a simple drag and drop format, through to the more advanced Robot C based on C++ language makes VEX accessible to all.

The VEX Robotics kits are used as part of extra-curricular VEX Robotics. The VEX IQ competitions are the largest and fastest growing robotics competition in the world with events held each year across the UK. Involvement in the competition develops key skills including teamwork, time management, perseverance – all of which are valued by employers.

We’re looking forward to what knowledge and skills the children will share with the rest of the school!

Mrs Kevan

Deputy Head

Summer 2: STEAM: Year 5 Primary Engineering - inspiring careers!

In January, Year 5 were involved with a STEAM event with 'The Smallpeice Trust' about working virtually with a NASA Space engineer to design and then build a rocket for a competition with other national schools - our Y5 children had great fun! (See previous STEAM event below).

Piers, an RAF engineer said, 'A big thank you to Brighton Avenue Primary School for taking part in the 2023 Road to RIAT Sustainability of Aerospace competition. Although you were not a winner this time your entry was excellent and made the judges job very hard! Thank you once again to your students for using their engineering skills and enthusiasm to provide such an brilliant entry.'

The project encouraged the children and wanted them to:

-Dare to Imagine

-Boldness, Excellence, Safety, Togetherness

-future careers

The second part of this STEAM experience was on the 8th June. The Y5 children discussed their previous engineering process with Piers the RAF Engineer of designing, creating, testing, and then improving a rocket with the Royal Air Force Youth STEAM. Then we introduced the new STEAM Superstars the children would meet virtually (see below) and had to send questions for these STEAM Superstars to answer:

Flight Lieutenant Jase Greenwood RAF

Squadron Leader Pip Lloyd-William RAF

Kira Farringdon Accenture F1 Contract

Our questions were:

I want to be in the RAF, what is the best way I can get started?

Digital Manufacturing - What GCSE subjects and A-Levels would I need to take if I want to do digital engineering? 

Can you get an apprenticeship to learn the skills in digital manufacturing? 

Did you have to work hard in primary and secondary schools to be an engineer?

What do you enjoy most about being an engineer / working for the RAF?

What was your very first mission/flight or engineering design?

Would any software/technology in my own home help me get a job like this?

What is the most important skill for an engineer / RAF?

What are the most important qualities for an engineer /RAF to have?

What is a day like in your job? Do you ever have any problems solve?

The Y5 children had a fantastic time listening to the answers to the above questions, and of course asking more questions! The children's feedback said it was interesting, fun, surprising answers, every day could be different, building on skills the children said they already have: resilience, teamwork, communication, exploration, achieving, critical thinking; also, to actual meet real people in a job that they could all do!

Fantastic Y5 Superstars!

Mrs Kevan

Tuesday 14th March 2023 - Connecting Schools To Nature Project.

Our School Council and Eco Warriors were proud to be selected to host a stall to showcase some of the fantastic green transformation work we are doing here at Brighton Avenue Primary School.  The purpose of the Hancock Museum event is to give out prizes and awards to schools, including framed certificates for participation.  Volunteers and staff from the project, hosted this private event along with one of our school govenors, representatives from environmental organisations, universities, funding bodies, the council, local MP and members from the press at this amazing event.

Katie from the British Ecological Society stated 'It was so lovely to see all of the photos and everything the pupils had been up to; I especially loved the '5 ways to wellbeing' work they had been doing.  So amazing and inspiring to see the pupils and staff!'

Full STEAM AHEAD!

On Friday 3rd March 2023, Brighton Avenue had a STEAM day; the children were amazing at explaining what STEAM stands for!

STEAM is Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Maths and is an inspiration for children's future study and careers. STEAM subjects share a focus of gathering and using evidence to create knowledge or solve problems, guiding children's inquisition and critical thinking. From EYS, STEAM learning happens naturally everyday as children explore, play, and try new things. STEAM is a method of teaching that can see the five subject areas join together for a creative, holistic approach to learning.

For example, STEAM activities in the EYS were linked to the Gingerbread Man; the children were stunned when they found out Mrs Allan had stolen the Gingerbread Man to eat him! They even sent a message to a policeman to say what had happened.

KS1, LKS2 and UKS2 had problems and had to find solutions, e.g. making something to catch the Gingerbread man, a new bridge for the Billy Goat's Gruff, making Lego rainbows and castles for the giant (Jack and the Beanstalk) and designing and making different types of transport for the needs of different people.

The children said it was a fantastic, fun STEAM day!

Mrs Kevan (Deputy)

VEX IQ National Championships 06/02/23

WE’RE GOING TO NATIONALS! Amazingly, our STEM team have qualified for the VEX IQ National Championships! We were so disappointed at the end of the regional competition that we didn’t qualify for nationals, despite performing so well and coming 6th overall in the north east. However, it turns out there was somewhat of a miscalculation of points and we are now rightfully going to the National Championships at the beginning of March, to show off our Robot’s skills. Take a look at the video of the children hearing the news that they qualified.  We are all so proud! 

Number Day - Friday 3rd February 2023

In school, we will be having a fun-filled day of Maths - please see 'Class Pages 2022-2023 for the variety of activities and games in Early Years, KS1, LKS2 and UKS2!

STEAM - 'Maths' - the children will also be looking at the future careers, they can have, linked with numbers!

STEAM: Welcome to the Year 5 RAF Space Challenge!

The Y5 children journeyed through the engineering process of designing, creating, testing, and then improving a rocket with the Royal Air Force Youth STEAM. A link with Piers, an RAF engineer, worked for the day virtually with the Y5 children to teach them all about rockets and satellites. The children enjoyed becoming ‘RAF Engineers’ and the challenge of being tasked with designing and building a rocket that could be successfully launched using the challenge of straws! When they had built a successful rocket, the children carried out 2 scientific experiments.

The aims of the STEAM project for the children: sharpens skills in thinking and communicating ideas and responding creatively to briefs; encourages personal development including time management, teamwork, problem solving, and social skills and promoting reflection on work.

The project objective: to follow instructions to build a rocket from card, and launch it using a straw; to evaluate the effect of adding fins; to investigate how the launch angle affects the range; to investigate how payload size affects the range.

The children’s learning objectives: 1. That satellites are objects in space that orbit larger objects 2. Gravity is the force that keeps objects in orbit 3. Identify natural and artificial satellites 4. Follow instructions to make a working card rocket, launched by an air pressure launcher 5. Assess the effect of adding fins to the rocket’s trajectory and range 6. Investigate the effect of angle of launch on rocket range 7. Investigate the effect of payload on rocket range.

Links to the curriculum:

Science • Scientific enquiry skills such as planning and reviewing, fair testing, and working safely • Investigating forces and materials. Maths • Taking measurements • Finding averages • Recording and analysing data. English • Effective speaking and listening • Following instructions • Communicating and presenting ideas. Design and Technology • Design, make and evaluate engineering process • Joining and strengthening techniques. PSHE • Working effectively in a group • Problem-solving and thinking creatively. Benefit from a raised understanding of STEAM in the real world, led by inspiring engineering experts.

Pupil Voice: All the children and staff said they were excited to continue being engineers after dinner time and were enthusiastic to feedback:

I had fun because I got to launch my rocket.

I liked it because I did find out if my rocket would work.

The virtual engineer was really good and shared clear information.

I learnt about rockets from an RAF engineer.

The instructions were in small steps and helpful for me: I even did the challenges.

It was good fun: the best part was when we had to investigate how far our rockets would travel.

Building the rockets was brilliant: I like that this craft and skill I can also now do at home and know which links I can watch.

I enjoyed when we worked in pairs because we showed Piers (the virtual engineer) that we were resilient – we kept going!

The rocket launch went much further than I thought: the nose-cone top and the different size angles I used on the sides of the rocket helped me.

It was really good making a rocket and the challenges were hard but fun.

It was brilliant to build a rocket and see how far it could go.

I want to be an engineer.

I’m excited to meet the NASA engineer and Formula One engineer in May.

15.12.22 NISSAN Lesson in a box.

The Nissan Skills Foundation Team visited LKS2 for the celebration event. The children shared all the amazing work they did and received wonderful prizes for their work! Amazing.

02.12.22 VEX IQ

This week our VEX IQ team were lucky to work with Dr Steve Bunce who visited us from the Royal Grammar School. Dr Bunce was extremely impressed with how far we had developed our game strategy for our robotics. He questioned us so that we problem solved and made new adjustments to our robot. We had such fun and learnt so much! He was so impressed that he is going to return to school next Tuesday tp work with us in our club. What an amazing team we are!

October 2022

Exciting news! We will be involved in one of the largest educational robotics programs in the world. With funding from the Reece Foundation and support of the Nissan Skills Foundation, VEX Robotics and the REC foundation, a group of UKS2 children will be trained in robotics and entered into a competition at NISSAN. The children will compete against other North-East schools, with the opportunity to compete nationally. The selected children will be involved in a STEM after school club! Today we launched our VEX IQ project. We worked so well as a team to build the game board and the different elements. Can you believe we achieved all this in one day!? We’ve built our base robot and we’re ready to start developing it and programming it in preparation for our first regional competition.

LKS2 Nissan Project October 2022

The LKS2 children had a visit from Nissan skills foundation team, to launch the 'Lesson In A Box' project. The team talked about raising aspirations of local children, showing us that social issues, economic background and gender are not barriers to a potential career in advanced engineering and manufacturing. The activities and resources link to both Nissan and Japan, through the 'Lesson In A Box' the children will gain knowledge of a global company, that is on their doorstep!

Full STEAM ahead July 2022!

We continue to work with Gateshead College and during July our 'full STEAM ahead' month involved the whole school participating in activities and workshops that introduced them to the opportunities of Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, Maths (STEAM), the world of work and 'Understanding the World' in the EYS.

STEAM is about inspiring and being dedicated in developing young people’s achievement in STEAM subjects and careers.

All areas of STEAM are a focus for 'full STEAM ahead'; children could experience an assortment of challenges which required teamwork, resilience, cooperation and critical thinking skills: the staff were as excited as the children!

The feedback from KS2 children, staff and governors, who participated in workshops at the Gateshead College sites said it was exciting for these children to venture outside the classroom to enhance and enrich our curriculum by making links with the world of work, so that children can relate school STEAM subjects to real world experiences. Through taking part in these projects, linked to businesses and industry, our children are gaining an insight into the various job roles open to them and are inspired by the new directions their learning could take them on.

Please see every 'Class Page' on the website for the variety of STEAM activities during 'full STEAM ahead', with some examples below. From EYS, KS1, LKS2 to UKS2, the range of STEAM activities included:

- Engineering and Science fairytales: Goldilocks and the Three Bears needing a chair that doesn’t break, Jack and the Beanstalk lifecycles of beans, plants and the habitats of bees in our community, the Hancock Museum Stretchy STEM Stories.

- Peter Pan: investigating how shadows are formed and creating new shadows for Peter Pan.

- The Three Billy Goats Gruff: children acting as engineers in order to help the three Billy Goats build a bridge: the bridge needed to be 40cm long, strong enough to support three soft toys after being built, tested and improving a design to demonstrate how their design worked.

- ice: deciding how to unfold a frozen t-shirt and which team could be the quickest!

- Static Electricity: various activities which demonstrated how it is that a force can work without any contact, e.g. moving a pencil on top of a bottle, picking up pieces of paper - see the 'race-can' below!

- See Science Curriculum website page for Miss Wasiejko, some Y5 girls and the STEM outreach team at Newcastle University for the variety of 'Girl Power' weekend activities.

- See Sustainability and Special Events website pages for STEAM links with Gateshead College, Eco-team and Wrekenton Recycling Centre and Green Heart Collective: Design technology, Art and Maths.

STEAM: 'Special Events' website page:

Please see the Special Events website page for the STEAM projects in the 21-22 academic year and community links with Shipley Art Gallery, Newcastle University, Hancock Museum and the different sites at Gateshead College.