St Margaret’s Junior School Head Emma Gray on the eye-opening wonder, and educational benefits of exploring the night sky
The desire to look up and to learn more about the skies that look down upon us has led to schools like mine creating opportunities for children to stargaze and learn more about the universe around them. Of course, participating in astronomy-based activities fosters an interest in science, but there is far more to it than that. Stargazing encourages children to use their imagination, to question the how and the why of everything around them and it can even lead to exciting discussions around evolution and the power of gravity.
Children are naturally inquisitive by nature, so having access to telescopes to widen their understanding of the skies and to better understand our own solar system helps them to develop their own verbal reasoning and logic as well as their vocabulary and literacy. Here at St Margaret’s, we are providing stargazing across all prep school year groups as part of STEM education, and we are even bringing astronomy into our nursery and up to pre-prep in Year 2. We have found that children are never too young to enjoy the awe and wonder of space.
Looking up at the night sky can boost emotional development in young children and improve concentration and focus as they learn to observe quietly, taking time and space to contemplate the world around them. Using special equipment like telescopes to stargaze also pulls children away from desks and computer screens and helps to improve their fine motor skills and hand-eye co-ordination as they learn how to look through the lens.
As we juggle the demands of the curriculum and make decisions on what to include, and what to reduce, subjects that open up children’s minds should be high up on school agendas. Stargazing provides wonderful food for thought and can transition across other subjects – including history, religious education and maths. For example, many children find it fascinating that the stars we are looking at are the same stars that amazed people throughout history. Likewise, measuring distances from the Earth to the Moon and between planets in our solar system can be mind-blowing for young children.
Making stargazing more accessible really does enrich learning opportunities and you don’t even need a telescope. Children’s understanding can be supported through technology and specialist apps – which helps make it an appealing and accessible area of discovery to a much wider audience. As well as looking at stargazing at an integral part of the STEM curriculum, schools St Margaret’s is developing co-curricular programmes and clubs. The night sky may be vast, but so is our children’s thirst for knowledge. As schools, we have a duty to nurture that.
St Margaret’s School stmargarets-school.org.uk
Further reading: Bickley Park School on ensuring strong outcomes
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