NUSTEM Early Years & Primary Programme
Developing, embedding and sustaining a careers-led, attributes-focussed approach to science teaching in primary schools.
Before the age of 8 many children make decisions about what jobs they would and wouldn’t like to do when they’re older. Those decisions limit their future options, unnecessarily. There’s now extensive research on this, from the ASPIRES work at UCL and also by ourselves.
We want to support children to learn more about possible jobs, and to develop their language to support discussions about work, careers, and subject choices.
The interventions we’ve designed focus on science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) contexts: there are particular challenges for children seeing STEM jobs as ‘not being done by people like me,’ which contrbutes to significant underrepresentation of some groups in the workforce.
Participating in the NUSTEM Early Years & Primary Programme supports children’s ‘careers literacy’ in general, and STEM aspirations in particular.
Solutions
Schools can support children and families to recognise themselves as possible STEM workers by:
- Exploring STEM careers with children from a young age, including with their families.
- Showing children that they share skills and attributes with people working in STEM jobs.
- Highlighting different routes into STEM careers, with parents and carers.
- Supporting teachers to include careers and attributes ideas in their lessons.
- Developing a whole school approach to STEM, enhancing curriculum provision and tailored to children’s needs and the school’s priorities.
Established and ongoing research from ten years’ practice in the North East shows the impact and value of these combined and interlinked interventions.
The Programme will support your school to experience and embed this approach and to enhance your children’s learning and aspirations.
Our expertise
The NUSTEM group at Northumbria University has been exploring the challenges of diversity in STEM, and possible solutions, since 2014. We deliver around 15,000 engagements each year, working with primary and secondary schools, teachers, families, and partner organisations.
Our website is filled with examples of our activities, projects, and background resources. You’ll also find context and details of our research and publications.
The NUSTEM team have backgrounds in education and teaching, and have formed close partnerships with many primary schools across the North East. These partnerships allow us to understand the challenge and solutions in a nuanced way, and to collaborate with teachers to create strategies and resources that work.
The Early Years & Primary Programme
We’re looking to build new partnerships, supporting schools to develop their approach to science learning from early years through to the end of First or Primary school. We’re inviting expressions of interest from schools across seven local authorities in the North East.
We understand that schools are complex places with a range of pressures, both internal and external. We know that real change can’t be completed overnight, and that to effectively enhance schools’ practice involves trust, evidencing the rationale for the approach, and tailoring the programme to the individual school.
Accordingly, the programme adopts a phased approach.
Phase 1: Developing
New partners will be seeking to develop their approach to science teaching, through the careers and attributes approach. This phase will last up to two years, and will include:
- Whole staff CPD in the careers and attributes approach – including training on our curriculum careers tool.
- Support and training for Early Years staff, based on our award-winning Play, Be, C resources.
- Workshops and assemblies for pupils in years 1 to 6.
- Access to our careers and curriculum-linked loans boxes, to support classroom teaching.
- Whole school projects such as our STEM Person of the Week resource.
- Regular meetings with your early years and science coordinators, to better understand the needs of your school and your progression towards Phase 2.
- Access to a suite of live online training.
Phase 2: Embedding
- Curriculum enhancement meetings with Early Years and science coordinators, to explore how to tailor the approach to successfully align and embed it within your school’s curriculum.
- Support to develop resources and activities to meet your specific needs.
- Bespoke training to support specific development needs, and to help support effective science teaching.
- Assemblies and loans boxes.
- Access to the Early Years Play, Be, C resources.
- Access to a suite of live online training.
We anticipate Phase 2 will last for up to 2 years.
Phase 3: Sustaining
Through regular meetings, phase 3 schools will be supported to fully embed the new practices in their curriculum and approach. We hope they’ll also share their experience and journey with other schools, influencing their practice .
- Termly catch-ups with your science coordinator and Early Year leads, to help sustain the new practice.
- The opportunity to share practice with other schools through networking events.
- Continued access to all the online resources and training materials.
We anticipate Phase 3 lasting for up to 2 years.
Additional background
Click to expand each section.
Want more information? Join us online for an informal webinar – details here
| Tuesday 14 May, 3.45-4.30pm | Microsoft Teams Link | Click here to add this webinar to your calendar |
| Wednesday 15 May, 12.15-1.00pm | Microsoft Teams Link | Click here to add this webinar to your calendar |
| Tuesday 21 May, 12.15-1.00pm | Microsoft Teams Link | Click here to add this webinar to your calendar |
| Wednesday 22 May, 3.45-4.30pm | Microsoft Teams Link | Click here to add this webinar to your calendar |
| Thursday 6 June, 12.15-1.00pm | Microsoft Teams Link | Click here to add this webinar to your calendar |
| Thursday 6 June, 3.45-4.30pm | Microsoft Teams Link | Click here to add this webinar to your calendar |
Download the Presentation and watch the webinar
Why Early Years and Primary Education?
Early Years is a crucial and formative development stage for children. We believe that without an approach that explores careers and attributes from Early Years onwards, schools will not be able to address the challenge fully.
NUSTEM have been working closely with Early Years leaders within our existing partner schools to understand what approach to take. We’ve designed resources which are age-appropriate, tested by practitioners, and that weave careers and attributes into Early Years provision. The resources are easy to adopt, cheap to resource, and do not require specialist subject knowledge to deliver and support.
When these children enter Key Stage 1, schools will be building on a strong foundation. Maintaining and extending the approach through primary school ensures that when children leave, they will have a better understanding of what science is, and of who scientists and other STEM workers are. This prepares them to make better-informed decisions about what they could do, later in their educational journeys.
What is a Careers and Attributes-led approach?
We aim to broaden children’s understanding of STEM careers, with the aim that when children reach secondary schools and begin to make more concrete career-related decisions, they’ll be more open to considering STEM careers as a pathway available to them.
Our methods are designed to work alongside current school provision, and fall into two broad categories:
- We use STEM careers to contextualise the science taught in the classroom. Through this, children understand the real-world applications of science, and begin to build up an idea of the wide variety of careers available to them.
- We use STEM attributes to help children see that they already have the skills needed to work in STEM. We use a set of 15 attributes, weaving them into curriculum delivery so children can get real evidence of their abilities in STEM beyond ‘getting the right answer.’
We’ve developed a wide range of tools, resources and activities, and will work with schools to find the approach that best fits their children, teachers, leadership, and priorities.
Applying to join the programme
If you’d just like to talk to us, contact joe.shimwell@northumbria.ac.uk.
Eligibility
Research suggests the challenge of feeling that a career in STEM is not for them is felt more acutely by children in areas of lower socio-economic status. Because of this, we’re looking for first and primary schools in areas of particular deprivation. As a guide, we’re inviting applications from:
- Schools with higher than the regional average of free school meals (30%), and/or:
- Schools which serve remote or rural areas.
…but do talk to us if you think your school meets our objectives, even if it misses these criteria.
The programme is linked to Northumbria University’s student access plan, and open to schools from Gateshead, Newcastle, South Tyneside, Northumberland, North Tyneside, Sunderland and County Durham.
Commitment
Being part of the programme is a long-term journey and partnership, between yourselves and NUSTEM at Northumbria University. It’s important that we can work with schools who are willing and able to develop their curriculum over the approximately 2-4 years of the programme. Where schools are part of multi-academy trusts, it’s important that they have sufficient autonomy over their curriculum to make changes.
We expect partner schools to actively engage with all aspect of the project. As a guide, we’d like 1.5 hrs per half term to work with your Early Years and Science Leaders. This can be done flexibly at a time to suit your school.
The phased nature of the programme does offer some reassurance. Your school is welcome to progress through the phases at whatever pace is appropriate; to pause or restart your journey, in response to changing circumstances; or, indeed, to leave at the end of a phase if your priorities have changed.
To apply
Step 1 – Application form
Download the application form here, and complete it at your own pace.
