STEM edition – Science Technology Engineering and Maths
Science 
The children said… they wanted more hands on Science activities planned into our curriculum.
So we… planned more practical scientific enquiry investigations for each class throughout the year with the help of our Science ambassadors.
Each class has 2 Science Ambassadors who applied for this leadership position because of their love of Science. The children love finding out about Science in a practical way.
Books in Science 
We are continuously investing in new books in school. This term we have purchased books around famous scientists and the Science curriculum.
Science In Our School Grounds 
We are creating our school garden where the children will be responsible for growing their own plants from seeds and bulbs and help to take care of them.
The children said… we want plants where we can look at them, touch them and smell them.
So we are creating… a sensory garden area.
Science after school club
The children in KS1 are loving the after school Science club for hands on learning and investigation skills.
Technology 🖥
Y5 and Y6 looked at product design. They worked with Sarah Hartley who works in product manufacturing at Muller.
All of the children in school have also developed their Design and Technology skills by using fabric.
Y6 are taking part in the TEKK challenge with HSBC. They have planned, designed and created their own playground using their design and technology skills.
“I want to be a CEO of a manufacturing business when I am older. I want to take things apart and look at how they are designed and learn from this.” – Mia Y3.
The children said… We would like more after school clubs to help develop Technology skills like coding.
So we did… After school robotics club. The children learnt about creating their own code to make their robot move.
“I loved robotics club. It helped me with me coding skills. I have done some coding in Computing and worked on debugging, so these skills were developed further in robotics club. I liked it when my robot moved using my own code. I was proud of this!” – Cori Y5.
Engineering 
Ashwood have links with the STEM ambassador programme. This year we have had virtual visits from Elaine Freeson who spoke to Y6 about her STEM career journey from Lego fan to Senior Manufacturing Engineer at medical Devices company Optos. Elaine designed and created the ocular test you have when you go to the opticians!
Y5 and Y6 are also working with Sheffield University on their women in engineering programme.
Maths – Practical Maths 
This year we have had a real push on developing Practical Maths to improve and embed our understanding of mathematical skills and concepts.
TT Rock Stars Battles
Teachers set challenges for classes on their TT rockstars accounts. This helps to improve multiplication skills and mental arithmetic. We have loved seeing how the children progress in their speeds on their class statistics.
Times Table Trails
To develop our skills of multiplication and division further we have times table trails around school to help us.
Attendance Statistics
Each Monday Ashwood have an assembly where part of the focus is around attendance. Each class looks at their own class attendance as a percentage. We compare how we have got better over time and our school attendance. Y6 are also our statistics masters and look at our data across school and present this in assembly to their peers.
Maths in the school grounds
We are developing our school grounds to practice and extend our maths skills. This might include statistics from scores when playing football in the Multi Use Games Area (MUGA), drawing chalk number lines to developing addition and subtraction skills or even understanding place value and ordering numbers using plant plots in the sensory garden.
Money matters
As part of our curriculum in each year group the children learn about the importance of money, budgeting, saving and spending. An understanding of money and finances are life skills for our children now and in the future.
Buddy Classes in Maths
We always love a chance to share our learning with others in Ashwood. We have shared our passion for Maths with our buddy classes.
Y5 and Y3 have buddied up to share their maths learning. They found out that they have been using some of the same methods when multiplying and dividing!
