Back to School starts with a STEAM day

“Everyone’s been so friendly and the children have loved the day.” What better feedback can you get from a visitor from another school than this? Further proving that, although we have entered a new decade, St Faith’s is still fostering its same values of respect and excellence.

After reading Mr Andrews’ Year 2 school report from 1992, Mrs Latham kindly pointed out that if he had been in her class at that time he might have fared better. Subsequently, viewing his Year 7 report showing the progress he made, Mr STEAM then linked his report to the theme of the day. As Mr Andrews’ Year 2 report showed a decline in his attendance during the Spring Term, the school set to work identifying why he might have been struck down more in this term than all the others. Fraser correctly pointed out that winter bugs are rife at this time of year and that must have struck down the otherwise healthy young chap. Thus inspired, the notion of hand washing was introduced – a vital component of ensuring we all stay as healthy as possible. Off we took to Kisumu, Kenya’s third largest city, where up to 7 families have to share one toilet. Hygiene is hard, due to the lack of amenities and education around keeping healthy. The children were challenged to build a model of a hand washing device that could go in their playground to enable them to capture rainwater then use it to wash their hands. They also had to research how to wash their hands and develop an educational poster to help children understand why hand washing is important. Off the children went in their houses and mixed year groups to find solutions to this problem. Joined by 16 children from neighbouring Cartwright and Kelsey, our budding engineers worked brilliantly applying their skills from across the curriculum. Impressively, our language of learning is now deeply embedded within our learners and it was extremely pleasing to see their application of collaboration, initiative, enjoyment and curiosity. There were some outstanding models created and it was pleasing to see the children applying what they had learnt in previous STEAM days to ensure their structures were reinforced. It was a fast paced, fun-filled, exhilarating first day of the decade – we would not have had it any other way!