Case studies

Schools and colleges can develop a project, with support from their STEM partner(s) expertise, that links to curriculum themes and can even be delivered within curriculum lessons. 

“Through acquiring both professional networks and specialised technical equipment, the teaching of renewable energy and forces has been enhanced within the main GCSE science and engineering curricula. Now, after project completion, these resources and networks will continue to enhance cross-curricula projects and teaching activities.” South Devon High School

Schools and colleges can, where appropriate, support cross-curricular project work, helping students to see the links between a wide range of subjects and the benefits of multidisciplinary approaches. 

“We have been growing our Daffodils [for the DNA project] and decided to start talking more about botany in our different subjects… our language teachers are all introducing biological terms in their classes, the English classes are writing poems about flowers, the primary class teacher is focusing on Botany during her science time and lastly the science teacher has moved her topics around to teach about nature drawing this term. It has been wonderful to have so many areas of the school involved.” St Mary's Music School  

“The highlights were working together to create a successful, coordinated project, which blended within the curriculum to ensure longer term knowledge and lifelong learning and laughter for our children The vast majority of the project was conducted within the school day, blended into the curriculum including the sciences, languages, maths, technology, history, geography, cooking, art, physical education, [etc], to enable full participation. The gardening club and leader (our gardener) additionally worked during after school club time and the cretaceous garden launch was prior to the school day starting so we could include parents/carers, STEM partners and governors.” Norbury CofE Primary School

Grant funding is often used at older age ranges to bring in advanced technical equipment, often similar or identical quality to that used in research laboratories, to allow the students to develop their skills and techniques. This experience can often help students stand out when applying for industry or university placements. 

“Crucially important skills have been honed and developed which are industry-relevant and will facilitate positive destinations for all of the students such as university applications, lab apprenticeships and other STEM employment opportunities. All of the students loved the STEM partner input, and guest lectures, and similarly they enjoyed using the nanopore technology and practicing their lab skills.” Berkshire College of Agriculture 

Many STEM partners continue to support their grant school or college long after the grant has taken place, helping to continue the original grant work or supporting with new projects and ideas the school wish to explore.  

“None of [our] long-lasting collaborative partnerships were feasible without the grant. The STEM partners had a similarly positive and useful experience and are keen to continue engaging with future students. In this vein, we plan to conduct residential trips to both STEM partners in order to participate in face-to-face talks and more lab work using their facilities.” Berkshire College of Agriculture 

The development of a collaborative and engaged partnership can help build a framework to ensure a strong legacy to the grant activities. We see this legacy in a huge number of formats, some of which are captured below. 

“Our STEM partner has offered to be a form of contact for our college with local industry and support students with CV and personal statement writing. These newly established internal and external networks will continue to be strengthened and utilised in future legacy related activities.” South Devon High School

“The biggest benefit for me was the fact that the project elevated the status of Psychology…. I think that students and teachers at my school view Psychology as a more scientific subject now. Now [our STEM partner] has supported me in delivering the project for the first year, I feel confident in running the project again every year for the foreseeable and I look forward to creating a legacy.” Simon Langton School 

“Doing this project was instrumental in achieving the highest level in the NCCE Computing Quality Framework certification and was cited in this year's successful bid. From the start of this project students were interested in linking computer science to other STEM subjects. The scope of this project gave students an opportunity to work with modern technology and apply it in a way that they could link to a career.” Co­op Academy Priesthorpe