STEM DAY 2025

Today, the school was buzzing with excitement! Prof Ed launched our STEM day with an assembly about forces. He explained to the children that forces are interactions - push or pull - that can cause an object to accelerate, change direction or shape. Poor Mrs Balicki was rather nervous demonstrating how gravity works knowing Prof Ed's proclivity for pranks. He had all the children laughing when illustrating how elasticity works by setting off a rocket balloon that whizzed around the room. We then 'lifted' off to Space and travelled to Mars where Prof Ed asked the children if they would prefer to walk or ride around the Red Planet. Naturally the child were eager to ride and thus their challenge was set: 'Design, build and decorate a buggy in teams to move over rocky terrain using the force of elasticity.'

The children, in their Houses, worked in small groups of mixed ages to build their Mars Rover. This took most of the day and it was great to see the older children working and supporting their younger team members.

In the afternoon, the House Captains voted for the best design from each house. The Winners were:
Kestrels: 'The John' designed by Bella,Tilly P and Edie.
Owls: 'Mars Mission' designed by Ruby, Jack and Skye.
Peregrines: 'Chaotic Car' built by Arabella, Aubrey and Sebby.

The atmosphere reached fever-pitch when the actual racing started. Several Heats were held to see which buggies could travel the farthest and overcome 'Mars Obstacles'. In the final race, Second Place was awarded to Silver Arrow ( Betty, Elsie D and Nina) and the winning team was 'Rover Rockstar' (Albert, Edie and Brooke). Both teams explained how they kept refining their design to ensure maximum potential, and it certainly paid off as their buggies travelled across the hall.

The whole day was a great success where the children learnt and developed their Science, Engineering, DT skills, worked in teams and overcame adversity.

A massive thank you to Prof Ed for planning and organising such a brilliant day!