Playing outside is an essential part of a child's development. From making mud kitchens, to getting to know nature, learning and playing outside will help little learners form key developmental skills such as physical health & self-confidence!
In March 2015, our school (Parkfield Community School), which is located in one of the most deprived wards in both Birmingham and England, was honoured (and more than a little shocked) to win the National Pupil Premium Award for 2015. This award was presented to our school due to the attainment of our pupil premium (disadvantaged) children and the innovative approaches we adopted – using our pupil premium funding - to help all of our children to fully achieve their potential.With this prestigious award also came a substantial amount of extra funding. This money could have easily been allocated to lots of small scale projects/resources, but we wanted to do something really special with it that would create a long-lasting, inspiring legacy for each and every child at our school both now and for those that will join us in the future. As an outward-facing, innovative school, and after much discussion within the leadership team, we came up with the idea of creating Parkfield’s Young Engineers’ Academy (YEA) where children could specifically work on science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) projects in a vibrant, dedicated space and have a wealth of resources which do this. This we believed would be quite unique for a primary school, and would inspire our children, our staff and the wider community, as well as providing the children with some of the skills that led to Birmingham’s proud history of innovation and manufacturing and which are still very much in demand today with key employers, such as BMW, Jaguar and Land Rover in our city. Each half term, our children visit our YEA for a full day. Here the children tackle a bespoke scenario, that provides the children with an opportunity to explore the links between and develop skills within the STEM subjects (in particular engineering, which is unfortunately given a low priority within many primary schools), in practical, real-life and fun contexts. Our key aim with the YEA is to inspire and excite our children and to infuse them with a sense of awe and wonder about education generally, but specifically within the STEM subjects, so that hopefully more of them will have the passion and drive to continue pursuing these subjects further beyond their time at Parkfield. The YEA provides experiences which the children would probably not get at home. It also develops those skills which will be crucial for both their education and for the workplaces of the future, such as: creativity, ingenuity, risk-taking, resilience and teamwork.In the past, we have found that many of our children have demonstrated low aspirations when they start thinking about their options for the future. Unfortunately, this often occurs due to cultural factors present in our community context, particularly amongst our girls. In addition, national evidence shows that many girls become disinterested with the STEM subjects at secondary school. This is something that we proactively try to address. One way that we do this is through the use of our Young Engineers Academy, by trying to capture the children’s interest in these areas from an early age. We also promote positive role models for all of our children to aspire towards, using pioneers from the present and from throughout history.As somebody with a real passion in these areas, I found myself designing the curriculum for the YEA. Although I had quite a few ideas, I quickly found myself turning to every teachers’ best friend - the internet - for inspiration. To my surprise, although there are lots of websites out there with possible ideas for lessons, I struggled to find a commercial company that produced quality resources with suitable lesson ideas that we could use. That was when I stumbled upon Primary STEM in Action.After browsing their selection of resources, the Earthquake Technologies Challenge Project immediately caught my attention (having always been fascinated by earthquakes myself) and I ordered a set to take a closer look at, which promptly arrived in school a few days later. The first thing that caught my attention were the wealth of teacher’s lesson plans that were provided within the teacher’s guide and children’s resource sheets. Although I’ve never been somebody who follows commercial lesson plans to the letter, these provided me with the inspiration I had searched for and with a few tweaks to the lesson plans/resources here and there, I could immediately see the potential of how this pack could be used with primary aged children to tackle various aspects of the STEM subjects, in an engaging way, within the context of looking at structures and earthquakes. I quickly found myself ordering multiple sets of this to use with a full class.For our children, they found using the K’Nex type materials to initially construct any structures quite challenging. This was because this was a completely new and alien construction material to our children. However, after some initial experimentation (which after all is what STEM is really about) the children’s confidence quickly began to grow and they began assembling all sorts of constructions, which were tested using the ‘dreaded’ Wobbletop Shake Table.During the full day that each class used these materials for, the children learnt about: the science of earthquakes; problems encountered by engineers (including monetary constraints – through being limited on the resources the children could afford to use); number computational skills; the construction of 3D shapes; problem solving; working as a team and much, much more. These were all skills were identified by the children when we evaluated the day. For me though, the richness of the discussion that could be heard as the children used these resources, the thought processes that were travelled (particularly when constructions were not as successful as hoped) and the engagement of the children throughout were fantastic.After the success of this project, we also purchased the STEM in Action Wild Feet Exploration Project, which we felt linked perfectly with a Year 2 topic concerning animals. This again, with the occasional tweak to personalise this to our school/topic, was equally as successful and popular with our children.The need for our YEA and for all schools to generally provide a higher priority to the STEM subjects is very clear. Although nearly all of the valuable skills developed by children through engaging in STEM sessions and through studying the STEM subjects are transferable (and are the kind of skills all employers are searching for), engineering is still key to the UK economy, especially in the post Brexit era we are about to enter. For example, “in 2014, the engineering sector contributed an estimated £455.6 billion (27.1% of the UK’s GDP). It is estimated that engineering employers have the potential to generate an additional £27 billion per year from 2022, if we meet the forecasted demand for 257,000 new vacancies in engineering enterprises inthe same timescale.â€
“Failing to meet our engineering workforce requirements will not only damage the UK economically, but it will also have a detrimental effect on individual employees’ prosperity and the economic sustainability of engineering employers. What’s more, failure will impact on engineering’s role in providing a lasting legacy for future generations through ensuring the supply of food, clean water and energy – a tough challenge against a backdrop of climate change and ageingpopulations. The single biggest threat to success lies with education: to meet demand, we need enough young people to study STEM subjects at schools and colleges.â€
Engineering UK 2015 – The state of engineering Through our current and future planned work with our YEA and through other school’s giving the STEM subjects a higher profile (particularly in primary schools), hopefully we can inspire and equip our children with the vital skills they will need to succeed in the future, thus ensuring that our future workforce and country continues to lead the world in creativity and innovation.#LoveLearning Discover STEM in Action™ at BETT – it’s free to attend! Find us on stand B78, Hall N3.www.steminaction.co.uk
In March 2015, our school (Parkfield Community School), which is located in one of the most deprived wards in both Birmingham and England, was honoured (and more than a little shocked) to win the National Pupil Premium Award for 2015. This award was presented to our school due to the attainment of our pupil premium (disadvantaged) children and the innovative approaches we adopted – using our pupil premium funding - to help all of our children to fully achieve their potential.With this prestigious award also came a substantial amount of extra funding. This money could have easily been allocated to lots of small scale projects/resources, but we wanted to do something really special with it that would create a long-lasting, inspiring legacy for each and every child at our school both now and for those that will join us in the future. As an outward-facing, innovative school, and after much discussion within the leadership team, we came up with the idea of creating Parkfield’s Young Engineers’ Academy (YEA) where children could specifically work on science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) projects in a vibrant, dedicated space and have a wealth of resources which do this. This we believed would be quite unique for a primary school, and would inspire our children, our staff and the wider community, as well as providing the children with some of the skills that led to Birmingham’s proud history of innovation and manufacturing and which are still very much in demand today with key employers, such as BMW, Jaguar and Land Rover in our city. Each half term, our children visit our YEA for a full day. Here the children tackle a bespoke scenario, that provides the children with an opportunity to explore the links between and develop skills within the STEM subjects (in particular engineering, which is unfortunately given a low priority within many primary schools), in practical, real-life and fun contexts. Our key aim with the YEA is to inspire and excite our children and to infuse them with a sense of awe and wonder about education generally, but specifically within the STEM subjects, so that hopefully more of them will have the passion and drive to continue pursuing these subjects further beyond their time at Parkfield. The YEA provides experiences which the children would probably not get at home. It also develops those skills which will be crucial for both their education and for the workplaces of the future, such as: creativity, ingenuity, risk-taking, resilience and teamwork.In the past, we have found that many of our children have demonstrated low aspirations when they start thinking about their options for the future. Unfortunately, this often occurs due to cultural factors present in our community context, particularly amongst our girls. In addition, national evidence shows that many girls become disinterested with the STEM subjects at secondary school. This is something that we proactively try to address. One way that we do this is through the use of our Young Engineers Academy, by trying to capture the children’s interest in these areas from an early age. We also promote positive role models for all of our children to aspire towards, using pioneers from the present and from throughout history.As somebody with a real passion in these areas, I found myself designing the curriculum for the YEA. Although I had quite a few ideas, I quickly found myself turning to every teachers’ best friend - the internet - for inspiration. To my surprise, although there are lots of websites out there with possible ideas for lessons, I struggled to find a commercial company that produced quality resources with suitable lesson ideas that we could use. That was when I stumbled upon Primary STEM in Action.After browsing their selection of resources, the Earthquake Technologies Challenge Project immediately caught my attention (having always been fascinated by earthquakes myself) and I ordered a set to take a closer look at, which promptly arrived in school a few days later. The first thing that caught my attention were the wealth of teacher’s lesson plans that were provided within the teacher’s guide and children’s resource sheets. Although I’ve never been somebody who follows commercial lesson plans to the letter, these provided me with the inspiration I had searched for and with a few tweaks to the lesson plans/resources here and there, I could immediately see the potential of how this pack could be used with primary aged children to tackle various aspects of the STEM subjects, in an engaging way, within the context of looking at structures and earthquakes. I quickly found myself ordering multiple sets of this to use with a full class.For our children, they found using the K’Nex type materials to initially construct any structures quite challenging. This was because this was a completely new and alien construction material to our children. However, after some initial experimentation (which after all is what STEM is really about) the children’s confidence quickly began to grow and they began assembling all sorts of constructions, which were tested using the ‘dreaded’ Wobbletop Shake Table.During the full day that each class used these materials for, the children learnt about: the science of earthquakes; problems encountered by engineers (including monetary constraints – through being limited on the resources the children could afford to use); number computational skills; the construction of 3D shapes; problem solving; working as a team and much, much more. These were all skills were identified by the children when we evaluated the day. For me though, the richness of the discussion that could be heard as the children used these resources, the thought processes that were travelled (particularly when constructions were not as successful as hoped) and the engagement of the children throughout were fantastic.After the success of this project, we also purchased the STEM in Action Wild Feet Exploration Project, which we felt linked perfectly with a Year 2 topic concerning animals. This again, with the occasional tweak to personalise this to our school/topic, was equally as successful and popular with our children.The need for our YEA and for all schools to generally provide a higher priority to the STEM subjects is very clear. Although nearly all of the valuable skills developed by children through engaging in STEM sessions and through studying the STEM subjects are transferable (and are the kind of skills all employers are searching for), engineering is still key to the UK economy, especially in the post Brexit era we are about to enter. For example, “in 2014, the engineering sector contributed an estimated £455.6 billion (27.1% of the UK’s GDP). It is estimated that engineering employers have the potential to generate an additional £27 billion per year from 2022, if we meet the forecasted demand for 257,000 new vacancies in engineering enterprises inthe same timescale.â€
“Failing to meet our engineering workforce requirements will not only damage the UK economically, but it will also have a detrimental effect on individual employees’ prosperity and the economic sustainability of engineering employers. What’s more, failure will impact on engineering’s role in providing a lasting legacy for future generations through ensuring the supply of food, clean water and energy – a tough challenge against a backdrop of climate change and ageingpopulations. The single biggest threat to success lies with education: to meet demand, we need enough young people to study STEM subjects at schools and colleges.â€
Engineering UK 2015 – The state of engineering Through our current and future planned work with our YEA and through other school’s giving the STEM subjects a higher profile (particularly in primary schools), hopefully we can inspire and equip our children with the vital skills they will need to succeed in the future, thus ensuring that our future workforce and country continues to lead the world in creativity and innovation.#LoveLearning Discover STEM in Action™ at BETT – it’s free to attend! Find us on stand B78, Hall N3.www.steminaction.co.uk
We believe educational toys and games aren’t just for Christmas; they inspire a lifetime love of learning! Play nurtures development and is the foundation for all learning, helping children to build everything from communication and language skills to imagination and creativity. With this in mind, we’re confident that our educational toys will be played with all year round and have put together a list of ten areas of development that they support.
1) Communication and Language
Educational toys can provide children with opportunities to use their vocabulary and discover new words. Imaginative play tools such as puppets help young learners to express themselves, ask questions and practice the art of conversation.Educational board games are a great way to help children make sense of social constructs such as following rules, listening to others, asking questions, winning and losing. Family games also help children to play co-operatively and, by actively listening, they will begin to take account of other people’s ideas and feelings.
2) Physical Development
Toys that aid physical development help children to be active and develop their co-ordination, control and movement. Fine motor skills refers to small movements such as gripping object and uses the small muscles of the fingers, toes, wrists, lips and tongue. Resources such as Jumbo Tweezers and Handy Scoopers™ help to strengthen these muscles and prepare children for tasks that will increase their independence, such as holding a pen or dressing themselves.Gross motor skills refers to the movement and co-ordination of larger body parts such as the arms and legs. Active play is a great way to develop gross motor skills through actions such as running, walking, jumping and crawling. Toys that encourage movement such as Pancake Pile-Up!™ and Math Marks the Spot™ help to promote physical activity alongside learning essential core skills.
3) Personal, Social and Emotional Awareness
Toys such as Mirror Boards and Puppets help children to build self confidence and form relationships. Children can use these tools to initiate conversations that help them to manage their feelings and sharpen observation skills. Through play, children become familiar with social constructs such as turn-taking, helping them to form relationships and develop respect for others.
Children discover the world through their senses. Toys that promote tactile awareness and sensory exploration help young learners to make sense of the physical world around them.  By combining sensory awareness and scientific discovery with exploration toys such as magnifiers, projectors and microscopes children can satisfy their natural curiosity in the physical world.
5) Creativity and Imagination
Play is a full time job that is fuelled by creativity and imagination. Imaginative play resources encourage children to draw on first-hand experiences in pretend play scenarios, helping them to make sense of day to day life. By the age of three, children are able to absorb themselves in make-believe and will often start to create elaborate story lines. This type of play is important as it helps young learners to build confidence, perseverance and self esteem.
Starting school is an important chapter in a child’s life and educational toys help them to develop basic early skills to prepare them for their new adventure! By playing with toys that help with pre-writing, speech language and communication, confidence, numbers and early phonics, young learners will have the head-start they need to shine at ‘big’ school.Learn more in our ‘School Readiness’ blog post.
7) Outdoor Exploration
Outdoor learning and active play are an essential part of a child’s development, building a variety of key skills including confidence, social skills and well-being whilst experiencing the wonders of the world around them. Hands-on tools such as Kidnoculars® and Jumbo Magnifiers encourage children to get up-close to nature, helping them to understand the world around them.
STEM is the acronym for Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths. STEM toys encourage children to solve real-world problems through enquiry-based problem-solving, hands-on experimentation, trial and error, and self-discovery. Challenges follow the Engineering Design Process (ask, imagine, plan, create, improve) and can pose challenges such as building simple machines or programming a Robot Mouse.
9) Core Skills
Learning Resources’ toys are designed in-line with the National Curriculum for England and help to support core skills across Literacy, Maths, Science and Geography. Through exciting game play and engaging activities, children will improve essential skills from the alphabet and phonics to fractions and measurement, without even realising they’re learning!
10) Learning is fun!
We think it’s important to keep children captivated while learning! Hands-on toys that are fun to play with, help to keep children present in the moment so that they can uncover their true potential. #LoveLearning#Givethegiftoflearning
Educational toys can provide children with opportunities to use their vocabulary and discover new words. Imaginative play tools such as puppets help young learners to express themselves, ask questions and practice the art of conversation.Educational board games are a great way to help children make sense of social constructs such as following rules, listening to others, asking questions, winning and losing. Family games also help children to play co-operatively and, by actively listening, they will begin to take account of other people’s ideas and feelings.
2) Physical Development
Toys that aid physical development help children to be active and develop their co-ordination, control and movement. Fine motor skills refers to small movements such as gripping object and uses the small muscles of the fingers, toes, wrists, lips and tongue. Resources such as Jumbo Tweezers and Handy Scoopers™ help to strengthen these muscles and prepare children for tasks that will increase their independence, such as holding a pen or dressing themselves.Gross motor skills refers to the movement and co-ordination of larger body parts such as the arms and legs. Active play is a great way to develop gross motor skills through actions such as running, walking, jumping and crawling. Toys that encourage movement such as Pancake Pile-Up!™ and Math Marks the Spot™ help to promote physical activity alongside learning essential core skills.
3) Personal, Social and Emotional Awareness
Toys such as Mirror Boards and Puppets help children to build self confidence and form relationships. Children can use these tools to initiate conversations that help them to manage their feelings and sharpen observation skills. Through play, children become familiar with social constructs such as turn-taking, helping them to form relationships and develop respect for others.
Children discover the world through their senses. Toys that promote tactile awareness and sensory exploration help young learners to make sense of the physical world around them.  By combining sensory awareness and scientific discovery with exploration toys such as magnifiers, projectors and microscopes children can satisfy their natural curiosity in the physical world.
5) Creativity and Imagination
Play is a full time job that is fuelled by creativity and imagination. Imaginative play resources encourage children to draw on first-hand experiences in pretend play scenarios, helping them to make sense of day to day life. By the age of three, children are able to absorb themselves in make-believe and will often start to create elaborate story lines. This type of play is important as it helps young learners to build confidence, perseverance and self esteem.
Starting school is an important chapter in a child’s life and educational toys help them to develop basic early skills to prepare them for their new adventure! By playing with toys that help with pre-writing, speech language and communication, confidence, numbers and early phonics, young learners will have the head-start they need to shine at ‘big’ school.Learn more in our ‘School Readiness’ blog post.
7) Outdoor Exploration
Outdoor learning and active play are an essential part of a child’s development, building a variety of key skills including confidence, social skills and well-being whilst experiencing the wonders of the world around them. Hands-on tools such as Kidnoculars® and Jumbo Magnifiers encourage children to get up-close to nature, helping them to understand the world around them.
STEM is the acronym for Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths. STEM toys encourage children to solve real-world problems through enquiry-based problem-solving, hands-on experimentation, trial and error, and self-discovery. Challenges follow the Engineering Design Process (ask, imagine, plan, create, improve) and can pose challenges such as building simple machines or programming a Robot Mouse.
9) Core Skills
Learning Resources’ toys are designed in-line with the National Curriculum for England and help to support core skills across Literacy, Maths, Science and Geography. Through exciting game play and engaging activities, children will improve essential skills from the alphabet and phonics to fractions and measurement, without even realising they’re learning!
10) Learning is fun!
We think it’s important to keep children captivated while learning! Hands-on toys that are fun to play with, help to keep children present in the moment so that they can uncover their true potential. #LoveLearning#Givethegiftoflearning
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This month you have loved our award-winning STEM Robot Mouse Activity Set, the low cost solution to coding in primary classrooms! This must-have set provides an introduction to the concepts of coding and STEM learning. We are surrounded by technology like never before including video games, smart phones and tablets. They are all forms of communication that impact our lives every single day and what they have in common is that they all involve coding! This set provides early learners a fun, real-world application of these essential 21st century skills. Children can programme the sequence of steps, and then watch the mouse race to find the cheese!
What skills does the set promote?
Problem solving
Self-correcting errors
Critical thinking
Analytical thinking
Understanding cause and effect
Working collaboratively with others
Discussion and communication skills
Calculating distance
Spatial concepts
Perfect for individual or group play, children can create their own maze board using 16 interlocking tiles and then add obstacles such as walls and tunnel pieces. The block of cheese can be placed anywhere on the board, with the challenge of programming the mouse to find it! The mouse has two speeds to enable tabletop and floor play. Before programming the mouse, children can map out his journey using colourful coding cards provided. They are colour co-ordinated to match the buttons on the mouse featuring forward, reverse, left and right commands. They also feature an action card, which programmes the mouse to perform one of three random acts:
Move forward and back
Loud “SQUEAAKKâ€
CHIRP-CHIRP-CHIRP (and light-up eyes!)
The Robot Mouse has won the 2016 Education Resources Award for Best Primary Curriculum Resource (including ICT). The awards honour the quality and diversity of products, schools and the most dedicated members of the education sector. In their eighteenth successful year, the awards are organised by BESA, the trade association representing educational suppliers in the UK sector, and Brilliant Marketing Solutions. The judges, an independent panel of experienced educational professionals, most of whom are classroom teachers said “the STEM Robot Mouse Activity Set would encourage children to build hands-on coding skills in a fun and enjoyable way. It was very easy to construct and represented excellent value for money!â€
Testimonials
Mrs Chimes, Class Teacher at South Wootton Infant School, said “this product is absolutely fantastic for the new Key Stage 1 ICT curriculum and requirements for children to create a series of instructions and plan a journey for a programmable toy. The children could use the product without adult support and really enjoyed itâ€. Emma Vanstone, blogger at Science Sparks, trialled the mouse with her coding club and said “Colby the Robot Mouse is a fantastic, hands on and visually appealing way to introduce coding to kids as well as helping to develop critical, logical and analytical thinking, spatial skills, teamwork and lots more. It’s been a big hit, both in my house and in a coding club I have been running at a local schoolâ€. Read her full review here.
This month you have loved our award-winning STEM Robot Mouse Activity Set, the low cost solution to coding in primary classrooms! This must-have set provides an introduction to the concepts of coding and STEM learning. We are surrounded by technology like never before including video games, smart phones and tablets. They are all forms of communication that impact our lives every single day and what they have in common is that they all involve coding! This set provides early learners a fun, real-world application of these essential 21st century skills. Children can programme the sequence of steps, and then watch the mouse race to find the cheese!
What skills does the set promote?
Problem solving
Self-correcting errors
Critical thinking
Analytical thinking
Understanding cause and effect
Working collaboratively with others
Discussion and communication skills
Calculating distance
Spatial concepts
Perfect for individual or group play, children can create their own maze board using 16 interlocking tiles and then add obstacles such as walls and tunnel pieces. The block of cheese can be placed anywhere on the board, with the challenge of programming the mouse to find it! The mouse has two speeds to enable tabletop and floor play. Before programming the mouse, children can map out his journey using colourful coding cards provided. They are colour co-ordinated to match the buttons on the mouse featuring forward, reverse, left and right commands. They also feature an action card, which programmes the mouse to perform one of three random acts:
Move forward and back
Loud “SQUEAAKKâ€
CHIRP-CHIRP-CHIRP (and light-up eyes!)
The Robot Mouse has won the 2016 Education Resources Award for Best Primary Curriculum Resource (including ICT). The awards honour the quality and diversity of products, schools and the most dedicated members of the education sector. In their eighteenth successful year, the awards are organised by BESA, the trade association representing educational suppliers in the UK sector, and Brilliant Marketing Solutions. The judges, an independent panel of experienced educational professionals, most of whom are classroom teachers said “the STEM Robot Mouse Activity Set would encourage children to build hands-on coding skills in a fun and enjoyable way. It was very easy to construct and represented excellent value for money!â€
Testimonials
Mrs Chimes, Class Teacher at South Wootton Infant School, said “this product is absolutely fantastic for the new Key Stage 1 ICT curriculum and requirements for children to create a series of instructions and plan a journey for a programmable toy. The children could use the product without adult support and really enjoyed itâ€. Emma Vanstone, blogger at Science Sparks, trialled the mouse with her coding club and said “Colby the Robot Mouse is a fantastic, hands on and visually appealing way to introduce coding to kids as well as helping to develop critical, logical and analytical thinking, spatial skills, teamwork and lots more. It’s been a big hit, both in my house and in a coding club I have been running at a local schoolâ€. Read her full review here.
