STEM@LHS

Back to STEM

STEM is very much an integral part of our academic provision here at the High School. We have a varied and exciting STEM programme which enables pupils to engage with a variety of different projects across all years of their schooling.

We engage with local stakeholders and universities, as well as engaging with National and International schemes. Our staff are recognised for their contribution, including as Arkwright Scholarship interviewers and giving presentations at National conferences on providing high-quality STEM provision.

Our students have won national awards such as Arkwright scholarships, and we have a large number every year attending the competitive EDT Inspire and Headstart Courses to learn more about STEM careers.

Grace, Aalia and Brendan have been awarded the GSK UK Young Engineers of the Year title at The Big Bang UK Young Scientists & Engineers Competition, for their project entitled “Music Splash”

The students project is an app that uses machine learning to analyse music performance and provides feedback to help you improve and work towards grading. The students say it “guides you to instant perfection and is like a music teacher in an app.” The students reached the UK finals of The Competition having won a place in the online heats.

Over 500 finalists from across the country were selected to show their ideas at The Big Bang Fair where ten were then shortlisted to pitch Dragon’s Den-style to a panel of VIP judges – including Andrew Smyth (Rolls-Royce aerospace engineer and former Great British Bake-Off contestant), Dr Ozak Esu, IET Young Woman Engineer of the Year 2017 and Roma Agrawal (structural engineer on The Shard, STEM promoter and TV presenter).

The Big Bang Competition is an annual contest designed to recognise and reward young people’s achievements in all areas of science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM), as well as helping them build skills and confidence in project-based work.

The students win £2,000 in prize money to continue on their STEM journey. Additionally, they will have the opportunity to complete work experience at GSK and for the ‘Deadly Diseases’ stage show from the Big Bang Fair to go to their school to teach their classmates all about germs, microorganisms and the spread of bacteria.

Previous winners have gone on to enjoy a range of other achievements on the back of their successes – including winning international awards in China and the US, getting backing from businesses for their projects, and taking part in conference presentations to industry professionals as well as appearing on the television and radio shows to talk about their project.

Congratulating the winner, Hilary Leevers, Chief Executive of EngineeringUK, which organises The Big Bang Competition, said:

“The judges have been blown away by the quality of entries from all the finalists – not only for their brilliant new ideas but for how eloquently they spoke about them to the crowds of people at The Big Bang Fair. Huge congratulations to Grace, Aalia and Brendan whose innovative project has seen them crowned GSK UK Young Engineer of the Year.

“It certainly bodes well for the future that the engineers, scientists and inventors of tomorrow are already producing such astute and creative project work – congratulations to all those involved in bringing these ideas to The Fair.”

In recent years we have provided the following opportunities for different year groups. This is certainly not an exhaustive list, but gives a flavour of our provision!

Year 7: 3M Challenges, Science Club, whole year group Science trips, CREST club, Science week poster competitions
Year 8: 3M Challenges, Science Club, CREST Club, Engineering Careers Days at Nottingham University, EDT First Edition STEM Days
Year 9: EDT Go4SET, 3M Challenges, CREST Club, RAF STEM Days, Design Technology challenge, Science week poster competitions, iRAIL competitions
Year 10: 3M Challenges, CREST Club, Morgan factory visits, Science week poster competitions, Maths Olympiad, Big Bang Fair Competition, Residential to the Big Bang Fair, TeenTech
Year 11: Futurewise Careers support, CREST Clubs, Science week poster competitions, Trip to CERN, Maths Olympiad
Sixth Form: Gold CREST enrichment, EDT Engineering Education Scheme, Day trips universities and employers, work experience opportunities, Science Olympiads, Maths Olympiad and talks from visiting speakers.