Members' Blogs

International Day of Women and Girls in Science: Standing on the shoulders of pioneers

By Tim Bradbury posted an hour ago
Each year on 11 February, we celebrate International Day of Women and Girls in Science, a moment to recognise the achievements of women in Science and to reflect on the work still needed to make science and engineering truly inclusive for everyone. Across the STEM Community and here at STEM Learning, we recently asked colleagues and members which women in science have inspired them most. The responses weren’t just lists of famous names, they were stories of persistence, quiet brilliance, and, in many cases, of contributions that weren’t fully recognised at the time. What quickly became clear is something many of us already know from our own classrooms: talent ...

You’re Qualified - Not Finished

By Tim Bradbury posted 6 days ago
You’ve qualified and you feel you should know everything, but secretly you don’t – now what? Liz Gibbs I was lucky in my early career. My first teaching job was in a tiny village school where everybody knew everybody. I took over from the local butcher’s wife who had taught Year 2 in the same classroom for 30 years. Talk about big, experienced shoes to fill. One day a pupil wanted to move his learning on by solving a column subtraction. Looking back, my degree course had not prepared me well for this moment and I found myself in a position of showing the boy a method I had learnt at junior school. I defaulted to the old “borrow one, ...

AI Sprints: Finding the Stories Worth Telling

By Alex More posted 11 days ago
AI Sprints are about people, stories and truth. So often in education, we hear from people who claim to predict the future by describing the present, and they do it with such conviction. Somewhere in the noise lie the reliable voices. Those who have genuine stories to tell, ones of transformation and hope. This is why I started the AI Sprints – to surface the stories worth telling, and to give people a space to share them. If you are curious what an AI Sprint is, I will do my best to define it. In essence, it’s a fast-paced exploration into the issues and ethics that surround artificial intelligence (AI). It’s not a podcast as it’s a live event. It’s also ...

Weekly news round up: 28/01/26

By Tim Bradbury posted 12 days ago
The Week in Education: What mattered for STEM 21–28 January 2026 Policy pulse: phones off, AI on Phone-free school day affirmed. The education secretary wrote to heads stating schools should be “phone-free environments” all day, including breaks and not using phones as calculators. Expect inspectors to check policies and consistency in practice. Sky coverage: phone-free letter AI tutoring & edtech pilots expand. DfE set out a trial of “safe AI-powered tutoring tools” targeted at disadvantaged pupils, alongside a £23m expansion of AI/edtech pilots to >1,000 schools and colleges from September. STEM heads should weigh device access, safeguarding, ...

Weekly news round up: 20/01/26

By Tim Bradbury posted 20 days ago
This Week in Education (UK) – 14–20 January 2026 Welcome back to your weekly round-up tailored for UK STEM teachers. Below you’ll find the key developments from the past seven days, with a STEM-first lens but a full view of the wider education landscape. Where stories overlap (e.g. multiple outlets covering the same announcement), I’ve consolidated to avoid duplication and highlighted the most actionable angles for classroom and leadership teams. Each item includes a link to the original coverage. Policy, Online Safety & Mobile Phones Government to consult on an under-16s social media ban; phone-free schools pushed via new guidance. Ministers ...

Samsung Solve for Tomorrow: Breaking barriers in STEM

By Tim Bradbury posted 24 days ago
Last week on STEM Community Live, I was joined by Jessie Soohyun Park, Head of Corporate Social Responsibility at Samsung, and Becky Patel, Head of Education and Learning at Tech She Can, to explore a topic that feels more urgent than ever: how we break down barriers into STEM and technology, and how schools can help young people develop the skills they’ll need for a rapidly changing future. At the heart of the conversation was Samsung Solve for Tomorrow, a free, tech-for-good education programme and competition for 11–18 year olds across the UK and Ireland, and the partnership behind it. https://solvefortomorrowuk.com/ Why diversity in ...

The 2025 Chemist-tree Champions

By Tim Bradbury posted 24 days ago
The Winners of the 2025 Chemist-Tree Competition are... 🥇 1st Place @Katherine Groves Katherine takes the top spot with a show-stopping Chemist-tree creation that wowed the community. 🥈 2nd Place @Laura Winter Laura’s beautiful and cleverly crafted decoration earned her second place. 🥉 3rd Place @Louise Mair Louise’s entry impressed with its balance of design and STEM inspiration Highly Commended Entries We couldn’t let these outstanding creations go uncelebrated! 🏅 @Olivia Wansbury – Virus Snowflakes brought a microbiological twist to the holidays and showed how beautiful biology can be. 🏅 @Emma Nicholson – ...

Apprenticeships with Altitude: Discover Engineering Careers with Virgin Atlantic

By Tim Bradbury posted 24 days ago
This National Apprenticeship Week , we’re delighted to be hosting Virgin Atlantic – Apprenticeships with Altitude , an inspiring online event designed to open young people’s eyes to the exciting world of aviation engineering and the many career pathways that apprenticeships can unlock. From keeping aircraft safely in the sky to designing and maintaining complex engineering systems, aviation is powered by a highly skilled STEM workforce. This exclusive webinar offers students a rare chance to hear directly from those working at the heart of one of the UK’s most iconic airlines. What is Apprenticeships with Altitude ? Apprenticeships with Altitude ...

Online STEM mentoring is open!

By Tim Bradbury posted 27 days ago
Help your students feel confident about life after school: online STEM mentoring is open As teachers, we know how daunting “what comes next?” can feel for students, particularly in Years 12 and 13. University, apprenticeships, vocational routes, employment… the choices are wide, the stakes feel high, and confidence doesn’t always keep pace with ability. That’s where online STEM mentoring can make a real difference. Through STEM Learning Online Mentoring , students are matched with trained STEM Ambassadors for structured, online conversations that help them explore ...

Step into the world of Seymour Science

By Tim Bradbury posted 17-12-2025
BBC Bitesize Primary has launched two new games that invite children to join Seymour and his friends as they learn all about science. The games are set in Seymour’s workshop where he films his very own TV science shows. Friends join him as they share their expertise on the seasons as well as light, sound and electricity. In Seymour’s latest Key Stage 1 game, Smashing Seasons, children learn what makes each season special. They can help a blackbird to build her nest in spring and find food for a hibernating hedgehog. Pupils can explore how weather changes and describe how the daylight varies in each season. Plus, with a little help from Seymour ...

Weekly news round up: 16/12/25

By Tim Bradbury posted 16-12-2025
The Week in Education: What mattered for STEM A neutral, classroom-focused round-up for UK teachers • 10–15 December 2025 Free schools shake-up: 46 projects scrapped; special/AP pipeline paused Schools Week Government cancelled dozens of mainstream free school projects and placed many special and alternative provision schemes in limbo, diverting capital towards local authorities instead. For STEM, the near-term impact is pressure on places, SEND capacity and local planning for specialist facilities. Read the Schools Week report SEND funding tilt: mainstream expansion raises special-school concerns Tes Sector voices questioned whether ...

Weekly news round up: 09/12/25

By Tim Bradbury posted 09-12-2025
The Week in Education: What mattered for STEM A classroom-focused round-up for UK teachers • 3–9 December 2025 Secretary of State in the hot seat: recruitment, SEND, phones Schools Week At the 3 December Education Committee session, Bridget Phillipson addressed teacher supply, SEND budgets, language take-up and expectations around mobile phones. The headline for classrooms is continuity on standards with firmer behaviour and attendance messaging, while funding and recruitment pressures remain unresolved. Read the Schools Week summary Ofsted annual report: attendance, behaviour and the “out of step” warning Schools Week Ofsted warned that ...

Unleash Your Inner Bauble Boffin – The Chemist-tree Competition is Back for 2025!

By Tim Bradbury posted 01-12-2025
Back by popular demand (and possibly because someone set off a glitter explosion in the prep room again), the STEM Community Chemist-tree Challenge is lighting up our feeds once more! Don’t let the name fool you, we welcome all STEM-themed festive creations , not just chemist trees. Whether you’re building a Fibonacci fairy, wiring up a light-up laser star, or 3D-printing a snowflake that explains Newton’s laws, we want to see it! To enter: Create your STEM-themed festive masterpiece. Take a photo. Post it on this discussion thread: https://community.stem.org.uk/communities/community-home/digestviewer/viewthread?MessageKey=9c3035ea-7e81-452b-af14-1128e40ee7c0&CommunityKey=efa20286-1785-472d-87f6-6ff52714b61c#bm9c3035ea-7e81-452b-af14-1128e40ee7c0 ...

Weekly news round up: 25/11/25

By Tim Bradbury posted 25-11-2025
The Week in Education: What STEM Teachers Need to Know (19–25 Nov 2025) 1) Four-day teaching weeks floated in Scotland Scotland’s education secretary tabled proposals for four-day teaching weeks , giving teachers one day a week for planning, assessment and wider responsibilities. Ministers are also exploring later starts and longer breaks. Unions welcomed extra professional time in principle but raised concerns about detail, delivery and process. For schools near the border or with families moving between systems, this is one to watch for timetable knock-ons and pupil equity. Read more: Sky News coverage . Sky News 2) Area-based partnerships ...

Oracy, the Digital Divide and AI Equity

By Tim Bradbury posted 19-11-2025
This month our Focus of the Month is all about Oracy in STEM, and it ties in perfectly with our latest episode of STEM Community Live: AI Sprints where we were joined by Kate Paradine, CEO of Voice 21, and Daniel Emmerson from the Good Future Foundation. If you haven't watched it yet, the session is now available on demand , and it is well worth an hour of your time. It was packed with insight, practical advice and some honest reflections on what learners really need from us in a world rapidly becoming shaped by AI. Below is a summary of the key themes that came out of the conversation and why they matter for STEM classrooms right now. Why oracy needs ...

Weekly news round up: 18/11/25

By Tim Bradbury posted 18-11-2025
Weekly UK education briefing • STEM-first • De-duplicated STEM Staffroom Briefing (12–18 Nov 2025) “Different mode” edition — short headline cards with tight summaries, STEM takeaways, quick wins and reflection prompts. Links go straight to the original reporting. AI-set attendance targets for every school DfE will use AI to generate non-public , context-aware attendance improvement targets per school; schools missing them may be referred for support. Schools Week STEM takeaway: convert marginal attendance gains into practical learning with a published “missed-practical ladder” and a parallel route for missed code labs. 36 new attendance ...

Responsible AI Teaching - Part 5: How AI can help students prepare for the world of work

By Tim Bradbury posted 13-11-2025
What role will AI play in shaping the careers of today’s students? That’s the question explored in the final Five-Minute CPD Drop , created with the Good Future Foundation . In this episode, Alex looks at how AI can act as a personal tutor, critical friend, and career guide — not replacing human effort or decisions but supporting young people as they take their next steps. AI as a career companion Traditionally, career intelligence was the domain of specialists and one-off guidance sessions. Today, AI makes it easier than ever to: Explore industries, roles, and pathways based on students’ interests and skills Understand required ...

Oracy and Scientific Literacy – Giving Pupils a Voice in Science

By Tim Bradbury posted 12-11-2025
With thanks to @Schools Engagement at The Royal Society. This month our Focus of the Month is Oracy in STEM, and there has never been a better time to talk about talk. The importance of oracy in developing scientific understanding has taken centre stage in two major reports published this year: the Royal Society’s Review on Scientific Literacy and Oracy in Primary Education and the Curriculum and Assessment Review . Both highlight the need for pupils to learn through talk, not just about it. The Royal Society’s review, led by Professor Sarah Earle of Bath Spa University, explores how discussion, questioning and reasoning help children build ...

Weekly news round up: 11/11/25

By Tim Bradbury posted 11-11-2025
STEM in the Headlines: Weekly Round-Up for UK Teachers 5–11 November 2025 Welcome back to your weekly look at what’s been happening across the education news landscape, with a particular eye on STEM and post-16. This week has been dominated by the curriculum and assessment review , government responses, and the knock-on effects for science, maths, computing and technical education – plus some important stories about SEND, NEETs, Ofsted and AI. Everything here comes from the sites you asked about (BBC Education checked but not directly scrapable, Sky News, Schools Week, FE Week, Tes and EEF), and only stories published between 5 and 11 November 2025 are ...

Larry Lamb back to school

By Tim Bradbury posted 10-11-2025
The UK stops learning at 51 – but Larry Lamb’s trip back to school with Samsung proves it's never too late The Department for Education’s National Curriculum and Assessment Review Final Report has reignited conversation about the future of Design and Technology (D&T) in schools, and with good reason. Once a vibrant space for creativity, curiosity and problem-solving, D&T has struggled in recent years, with falling GCSE entries and outdated perceptions of what the subject offers. The review calls for a renewed focus on social responsibility, inclusive design and real-world application, principles that sit at the heart of Samsung’s Solve for ...