A local school has been nominated for a national award for one of their after-school STEM clubs.
The LEGO club at St Bees School has grabbed the attention of the judges at the STEM Inspiration Awards and is in with a chance of winning the “Outstanding STEM Club Award” in November.
After a massively successful first year taking part in the LEGO League, the team of students at St Bees have gone from strength to strength, winning not one but two awards during the LEGO League regionals at the start of the year. This placed them in the top two schools in the UK for LEGO League.
The club teaches the students valuable skills in each of the STEM subjects - Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics - as well focusing on key attributes to develop their character – including teamwork, leadership and public speaking.
Ann Stott, who runs the LEGO Club at the school is thrilled to have received the nomination.
“The students have worked incredibly hard over the last year during LEGO Club and it’s amazing to see that their efforts haven’t gone unnoticed. Placing in the top two in the 2020 regional league had given us all a huge boost - but this nomination has proved that we are heading in the right direction.
Even lockdown hasn’t deterred our students from building with LEGO, and come September, the school will become home to robotic LEGO hand sanitisers - all build and programmed by the students themselves.”
The school also offers an Easter and summer school known as ACTIVE-8, where children from around the country can come and learn how to build and programme their own LEGO robots in just one week. Due to COVID-19 restrictions, this year’s Easter and summer schools had to be postponed, but the events have been rescheduled for 2021.
Numerous large engineering and nuclear businesses such as Sellafield call West Cumbria their home, and in addition to the school’s links with the technologically advanced countries in the East, St Bees is becoming the a leading school for STEM learning in the UK.
The STEM Inspiration Awards aim to celebrate individuals and organisations across the STEM education sector who have stood out in their clubs, lessons and more.
For more information about St Bees LEGO Club or ACTIVE-8, please visit the school’s website: https://www.stbeesschool.co.uk/active8/