Members' Blogs

What makes you wonder? Enter our summer STEM photography competition

By Tim Bradbury posted 20 hours ago
Summer is full of moments that make us stop, look again and ask questions. Why do bubbles form that shape? What creates the colours in a sunset? How does a spider web stay so strong? Why does sand feel cooler beneath the surface? This summer, we are inviting STEM Community members to capture one of those moments and turn it into a question. How to enter Take a photograph of something that sparks your STEM curiosity and share it with the Community alongside one question inspired by what you have seen. Your photograph could feature: an interesting pattern in nature movement, forces or changing materials a surprising structure or ...

Weekly news round up: 7/7/26

By Tim Bradbury posted 3 days ago
The Week in Education: What mattered for STEM teachers 1–7 July 2026 • UK education, STEM-first (but not STEM-only) An educator-facing long-read pulling together key stories from Tes, Schools Week, FE Week and the EEF. Duplicate coverage has been consolidated, with links to the original stories. Quick map (if you only have two minutes) Teacher pay dominated the week , with a 3.5% rise for 2026–27, a further 3% from September 2027, and schools expected to find the first 1% each year. Heatwave disruption stayed live , with DfE messaging to schools criticised after closures and early finishes during extreme heat. Assessment systems remained ...

What can oracy and AI do for education? Part 3

By Tim Bradbury posted 4 days ago
Download booklet 3: What is the impact of AI on the planet ? Download now This booklet focuses on one essential question in AI literacy: What is the impact of AI on the planet? This is a contentious topic, and one surrounded by misinformation. The 2025 Curriculum and Assessment Review (CAR) emphasises the importance of climate education and sustainability across multiple subjects, recommending explicit integration into the geography purpose of study, updated climate science content in science, sustainability principles in design & technology, and age-appropriate climate justice in citizenship, recognising it as both a civic imperative and an economic ...

Is your prep room summer ready?

By Sarah Atkinson posted 4 days ago
Summer is fast approaching, and for science technicians it can mean very different things. For some, it marks the start of a 6-week term-time break. For others, it means working those plus 5, 10 days, and for the endangered full-time, 52-week technicians, summer can be one of the busiest times of the year. Whichever category you fall into, this is a useful time to pause, reflect and review. Once Year 11 have left and the daily practical requests ease slightly, there may be a little breathing space to look properly at the prep room, chemical store and department paperwork. Time for deep cleaning, stock checks, ordering, and preparing the department for ...

Weekly news round up: 30/6/26

By Tim Bradbury posted 10 days ago
The Week in Education: What mattered for STEM teachers 24–30 June 2026 • UK education, STEM-first (but not STEM-only) A teacher-facing long-read pulling together key stories from Tes, Schools Week, FE Week and the EEF. Duplicate coverage has been consolidated, with links to the original stories. Note: BBC Education pages were blocked for automated access. Sky’s education page did not surface a distinct collection of new education stories for this period. Quick map (if you only have two minutes) Extreme heat exposed the limitations of school buildings , with early closures, illness and renewed questions about maximum classroom temperatures. ...

Who Gets to Be a 'STEM Person'?

By Alex More posted 15 days ago
STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) is by design an inclusive acronym. It pulls together four separate disciplines and groups them as one. This is why I love STEM as a concept. But when you take a closer look at the research into STEM-related fields, from education to careers and into industry, a gap as wide as time starts to appear, which sees one group peering over the edge of a gendered ravine, and girls often find themselves on the wrong side of a needless dividing line. Last year, I set about trying to understand this divide, so I embarked on a systematic literature review as part of my Doctorate. The full 8k words are accessible here: Gender ...

Weekly news round up: 23/6/26

By Tim Bradbury posted 17 days ago
The Week in Education: What mattered for STEM teachers 17–23 June 2026 • UK education, STEM-first (but not STEM-only) An educator-facing long-read pulling together key stories from Tes, Schools Week, FE Week and the wider education sector. Duplicate coverage has been consolidated, with links to the original stories. Quick map (if you only have two minutes) Assessment reliability was tested again , with mistakes in a GCSE science paper and technical problems affecting GCSE maths marking. Government plans for AI tutoring met an evidence reality-check , despite ambitions to support hundreds of thousands of disadvantaged pupils. Falling pupil ...

Talking about AI: why oracy matters in an AI-infused world

By Tim Bradbury posted 23 days ago
In the final episode of STEM Community Live: AI Sprints Season 2, Alex More was joined by Amy Howe from Voice 21, alongside teachers and leaders from Cornerstone Academy Trust and Osborne Co-operative Academy Trust, to explore how structured talk can help young people make sense of artificial intelligence. The session focused on Talking about AI , a new collaboration between STEM Learning and Voice 21. The resources have been designed to help teachers create purposeful opportunities for learners to discuss AI, develop critical thinking and build confidence through oracy. With both AI and oracy featuring in the 2025 Curriculum and Assessment Review, the discussion ...

Reflections on supporting students with SEND in science

By Louise Herbert posted 23 days ago
Science is a wonderfully rich subject - but for many students with SEND, it can also be a maze of abstract ideas, unfamiliar equipment, and sensory overload. This year at STEM Learning, we’ve been exploring how to make that maze easier to navigate. We started our thinking by reflecting on how science is different as a subject and what it is that makes it challenging to all students, but especially challenging in some areas for some students. Practical work? Yes, sometimes with smelly, noisy sensory challenges built in! But it is not only practical work that can cause barriers to appear. Building up to a complex understanding of abstract concepts is difficult ...

Weekly news round up: 16/6/26

By Tim Bradbury posted 24 days ago
The Week in Education: What mattered for STEM teachers 11–16 June 2026 • UK education, STEM-first (but not STEM-only) An educator-facing long-read pulling together key stories from Tes, Schools Week, FE Week, Sky News and the EEF. Duplicate coverage has been consolidated, and each story is linked so you can read the original. Quick map (if you only have two minutes) Ofsted guidance has been updated for September 2026, with clearer focus on inclusion, disadvantage, medical conditions and enrichment. Natural history GCSE has finally been given the go-ahead , opening a useful curriculum and careers conversation around ecology, biodiversity and ...

Weekly News Round up: 10/6/26

By Tim Bradbury posted 30 days ago
The Week in Education: What mattered for STEM teachers 3–10 June 2026 • UK education, STEM-first (but not STEM-only) An educator-facing long-read pulling together key stories from Schools Week, Tes, FE Week and the EEF (duplicates removed). Each story has a link so you can read the original. Quick map (if you only have two minutes) Attendance is being reframed as wellbeing and belonging (girls’ life satisfaction, “one-off” absences, even birthdays). Workforce headlines look contradictory (targets vs shrinking workforce; falling rolls vs specialist shortages). SEND implementation continues to tighten around “Experts at Hand” guidance and ...

Generation Logistics Week Brings a Hidden Career Sector into Schools

By Tim Bradbury posted 08-06-2026
Every day, students rely on one of the UK’s largest and most dynamic sectors without even realising it. Logistics keeps shelves stocked, parcels moving and hospitals supplied and is led by the skills being taught across the country: problem-solving, data analysis, teamwork, communication and decision-making. From engineers and technologists to sustainability leads and planners, the sector depends on these core capabilities and is actively looking for the next generation of talent – many of whom are already sitting in today’s classrooms. Generation Logistics is encouraging teachers and careers advisors to take part in Generation Logistics Week (22–26 June 2026), ...

Helping everyone to flourish; reflections on a changing curriculum

By Louise Herbert posted 04-06-2026
As we have had a year of reflection and discussion around a changing curriculum, I have found myself surrounded by various groups of people including policy makers, education experts, trust leads, subject leaders and teachers who are from different areas of STEM education, but who all seem to agree on certain things. The passion and mission we all share extends much beyond specific items some people would like to see added to or taken away from the curriculum and I think that is so encouraging as a message. The things I frequently hear and that are our shared values - 1. We want inspiration That everyone wants pupils not to just survive and get through ...

Weekly news round up: 02/06/26

By Tim Bradbury posted 02-06-2026
The Week in Education: What mattered for STEM teachers 27 May 2026 – 2 June 2026 • UK education, STEM-first (but not STEM-only) An educator-facing long-read that joins the dots across Tes, Schools Week and FE Week (duplicates removed). Every story is linked so you can read the full piece. Quick map (if you only have two minutes) This week’s thread is “system strain showing up in classrooms”: extreme heat, workload and legal duties, assessment going digital faster than students’ skills, and a renewed focus on what school is for (and how we measure it). You’ll also see the post-16 world pushing hard on NEET prevention, Access to HE funding, and how ...

Weekly news round up: 26/05/26

By Tim Bradbury posted 26-05-2026
The Week in Education: What mattered for STEM teachers 20–26 May 2026 • UK education, STEM-first (but not STEM-only) An educator-facing long-read that joins the dots across Schools Week, Tes, FE Week and the EEF. Duplicate coverage has been consolidated and every story is linked. Quick map (if you only have two minutes) Assessment got messy : on-screen GCSE Computer Science errors (and what “fairness” looks like afterwards). T Levels are being reshaped again : more remote/fragmented placements, and a shift away from a single awarding-body model. SEND reform hit a reality-check : EEF’s response highlighted evidence gaps, and multiple outlets ...

What can oracy and AI do for education? Part 2

By Tim Bradbury posted 20-05-2026
Download booklet 2: Can We Trust It ? Download now We discuss cartoons, talk tactics, and debates to establish that truth is rarely straightforward and trust must be earned. In KS1, a story told two ways starts the conversation. By KS3, the question is systemic: who controls the information, and what happens when trust breaks down at scale? School is a place where people and ideas meet. It’s a safe space to explore difference, and where young people can come to discuss the world around them. That world is increasingly digital, distancing children from meaningful human connections. The inclusion of oracy and artificial intelligence ...

Weekly news round up: 19/5/26

By Tim Bradbury posted 19-05-2026
The Week in Education: What mattered for STEM teachers 13–19 May 2026 • UK education, STEM-first (but not STEM-only) A teacher-facing long-read that joins the dots across Schools Week, Tes and FE Week. Duplicates removed; links included so you can dig deeper. Quick map (if you only have two minutes) SEND reform moved from “consultation” to “legislation” via an Education for All bill announcement. Inclusion funding was scrutinised and early analysis suggests the “headline billions” may translate into modest per-school allocations. Behaviour policy got more complicated : internal exclusions may not reduce suspensions, and new recording expectations ...

Introducing the Primary STEM Benchmarks: supporting meaningful STEM improvement in every school

By Sarah Dagnell posted 19-05-2026
To finish off primary month in the STEM Community, I'd like to introduce STEM Learning's new Primary STEM Benchmarks. Across primary education, there is growing recognition of the importance of high-quality STEM teaching. Schools are working hard to develop rich, engaging experiences in science, technology, engineering and mathematics, but many leaders tell us the same thing: bringing this together into a coherent, strategic whole can feel challenging. That is why we have developed the Primary STEM Benchmarks . This new framework has been designed to support schools in taking a step back, reflecting on their current provision, and identifying ...

National Numeracy Day: Bringing Maths to Life Through Primary STEM

By Tim Bradbury posted 18-05-2026
This month, as part of our Primary STEM Focus of the Month , we’re also celebrating National Numeracy Day and the important role numeracy plays across the wider curriculum. For many young people, maths can feel disconnected from everyday life. National Numeracy Day is a brilliant opportunity to change that narrative and help pupils see numeracy as something practical, creative and relevant to the world around them. In Primary STEM especially, numeracy is everywhere. It sits naturally within science investigations, engineering challenges, data collection, coding activities and problem solving. Whether pupils are measuring plant growth, interpreting results ...

From a Blank Page to Piccadilly Circus: Meet the Student Inventors Who Won Samsung Solve for Tomorrow 2025/26

By Tim Bradbury posted 14-05-2026
From a Blank Page to Piccadilly Circus: Meet the Student Inventors Who Won Samsung Solve for Tomorrow 2025/26 • Three student teams - tackling asthma, wound care, and green living - crowned as winners of the sixth annual Samsung Solve for Tomorrow competition, entering alongside 2,185 young innovators from across the UK and Ireland • 95% of participating teachers say they would recommend the programme to fellow teachers - with the competition free to enter and curriculum-aligned across D&T, STEM, and PSHE • Winners receive Samsung tech, work experience at Samsung, the chance to see their ideas showcased on the ...