Queen Ethelburga’s Collegiate Academic Director Kevin Oldershaw how STEM subjects deliver transferable skills to benefit all students, wherever their passions lie
Fostering an understanding of STEM from an early age teaches highly desired and transferable skills such as critical thinking, problem-solving, exploration, collaboration, and innovation. Children, particularly younger children, are built to learn through exploring their environments, so encouraging this at an early age creates a passion for independent learning and the ability to tackle challenges confidently and creatively.
At Queen Ethelburga’s Collegiate (QE), we offer a wide range of STEM subjects throughout all school years and levels – including KS3, GCSEs, BTECs, and A levels. Alongside that, the school prides itself on offering a broad range of extracurricular STEM activities. These include opportunities such as the Practical Science CREST Award, Critical Thinking Club, Advanced Mathematics Club, QE Motorsports, the Medical Conference Collegiate Competition, the annual Suturing Workshop, Psychology Club, and the Medicine and Veterinary Society.
Our students can also send items to space annually as part of the Mars Balloon national initiative and can collaborate with local students on QE Volcano Day and QE Bath Bomb Day. Students also compete in a variety of national competitions including the Olympiads, Bebras, ICE CityZen, Cambridge Chemistry Challenge, UK Biology Challenge and the University of Warwick National Scientific Challenge.
For those students looking to apply to medicine, dentistry and veterinary courses, we host a mock MMI interview as part of the Early Applicant Programme – supplementing this with weekly one-to-one application support. Other vital applicant experiences, such as volunteering in local care homes, alumni seminars, work experience support and regular talks from a retired GP, are also part of this support programme.
We know that students with a good grounding in STEM skills are able to adapt to many different environments, where technology, analysis, creative thinking and creating solutions to problems give them an advantage. This may be the traditional route of specialising in a STEM field or a very different pathway, such as art and design, where the way STEM education has influenced how they think and approach situations makes them an ideal candidate.
QE is built on encouraging students to ‘be the best they can be with the gifts that they have’ and so we are dedicated to encouraging students wherever their strengths and passions lie. We offer a variety of lessons that meet different learning styles and needs, also encouraging extracurriculars that support individual passions, and ambitions. Our rich mix of classes, clubs, events, seminars, competitions, and leadership roles provide ample opportunity for students to challenge themselves while also finding their path and building their experience and confidence.
By focusing on each individual and their needs, we deliver our curriculum and extracurriculars in a way that enables young people to get the most out of their time at QE. This is why, alongside 100 enrichment activities, we seek out beneficial opportunities that offer something unique.
Queen Ethelburga’s qe.org
Further reading: Super science – how schools bring STEM subjects to life
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