Client Case Study: Nene Education Trust

To support NET's World.Work.Wellness week in July 2021, one day was selected to engage with three-hundred year sixes in the trust to inspire them to be inspired by the subjects; science, technology, engineering, arts and maths (STEM) as they prepare for their move to secondary schools in September 2021 

Over a period of six weeks, The STEM Project worked with the NET through virtual conferencing.

Topics discussed :

• Objective; Goals to support the main objective
• Alignment; How could the content / themes align to Work.World.Wellness
• Discussion: Concepts and ideas of workshops and themes.
• Activities; How these could be deployed and supported
• Budget: Keeping within budgetary parameters to support the day (covering content, speakers, materials, communications, kit etc)

The STEM day was originally planned to be a physical event to take place at a secondary school in the trust, of which students would travel to, with several hands-on STEM workshops taking place manned by trained DBS cleared STEM Ambassadors. 

Students would follow a scheduled timetable, which would ensure all students would engage with the various themes and activities of the day, whilst completing a STEM day booklet to incorporate additional activities to link to Work.World and Wellness. 

Due to the delay in covid restrictions being lifted, the event was at risk of cancellation. 

With ten days to go until the day, The STEM Project was able to identify, manage and mitigate any delay or cancellation to this event by suggesting and creating a hybrid day of activity, reducing the activities and themes to suit a timetable that seven schools could follow.

Three themes of content were agreed upon and created by The STEM Project in a format that could delivered by the teachers across the trust, in the form of power points; supported by videos, worksheets and hands on activities (of which could also be accessed and completed from home if bubbles were closed) 

Two of the three themes were then supported by a speaker from the theme-aligned industry, of which The STEM Project sourced.

The 90minute themes were;

• Engineering + Space (Speaker: Sophie Harker)
• Zoology + Entomology (Speaker: Carrie Alcock)
• Physics; Forces and Motions

 Working with Laura and The STEM Project was unequivocally inspirational. 

From the beginning of our initial conversations, through to project delivery and then the review after the day, Laura conducted herself with professionalism, integrity and with the sole focus on ensuring that the young people in the Nene Education Trust were inspired by science, technology, engineering and maths; and all that it can and does offer. 

The range of speakers was superb and the organisation, from start to finish, ensured that our STEM Day ran smoothly. 

I would highly recommend the STEM Project to all schools and youth organisations.

Matt Coleman, NPQEL

Director of Primary Education, Nene Education Trust