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World Book Day STEM Week

Super Science with our very own STEM Ambassador

In our nursery, Elmers and Tigers had the most amazing about freezing and melting points and the effect of salt on UV light from the sun from reacting with the beads. We expect
morning with our STEM Ambassador Mrs Angelillo, working temperature. Y5 had a workshop on reversible and irreversible after the investigation the children will be keener to apply their
as her super science helpers, making lots of lotions and changes that involved explosions and strange changes and Y6 factor 15 creams this summer! Y8 also indulged in the ice-
potions. They made volcanos, lava lamps, skittle rainbows and learnt how to extract DNA from banana skins. They will never cream experiment.
experimented with different types of material. She also proved look at fruit the same way again.
that she was magic, bursting a balloon with an orange. Our students across the school had so much fun and learnt a
Over at our Senior School Y7 enjoyed a fascinating and lot, with Mrs Angelillo sharing her passion and enthusiasm for
In our Prep School lab Y3 investigated dark, white and milk informative STEM activity which used UV bead bracelets to science and inspiring the next generation of scientists.
chocolate and found out one which one melted the fastest. Y4 study light. The pupils learnt the UV radiation exists even if
amade ice-cream in a bag without a freezer in sight. They learnt it can’t be seen and the children explored ways of preventing

Special Guests Engineering

Mrs King summed up the importance of reading very well, saying, “books are important – they Authors Keith Hatton and Lou Carter spent time with the children sharing their latest books Collaboration
enrich lives and expand minds’, and Sancton Wood certainly embraced World Book Week in and inspiring the next generation of authors. The children found them highly interesting: the We were very lucky to have lots of scientific expert
support of this message. Our students, across all ages loved dressing up and it was wonderful questions and discussion that came out of both sessions were brilliant. visitors. Across our Nursery and Prep School, Dr & Reception and Y1 joined our nursery children
to see them discussing their favourite characters throughout the school, but it didn’t stop there. Dr Pai shared with us a very timely and interesting at Station Road to be engineers and to design,
Keith offered a writing workshop, demonstrating how to turn real experiences into a story. Our exploration of germs. Under ultra violet lights the build and test their vehicles. The Crayon Class
In Nursery, Elmers and Tigers visited Cambridge Central Library where they enjoyed listening older children produced lovely writing plans showing how we can knit fact and fiction together children were able to see whether their hand washing and Peter Rabbit class rose to the challenge
to stories read by the library staff in a special ‘Storytime Chair’. They learnt how the library when we write. was effective. We had an out of this world talk from of being the oldest children and showed great
works and all now have their very own library card ready and raring to go. Matt Rothwell, an astronomer from The Cambridge understanding of sharing, caring and being good
Lou read her stories to the children in Reception to Y2, adding her thoughts about each page Institute of Astronomy, a fascinating programming role models.
They had lots of visitors come and read to them including Mr Settle, Mrs Reader and some and enthusing the children with excitement about the storyline and characters. The children session from Mr Zongur and Mr Deacon dismantled a
of our Mums and Dads. Reception also joined Tigers for a book themed treasure hunt. The were invited to reenact the story in freeze frames. Lou modelled how to come up with a story computer for the children to see inside. The children
children celebrated with a ‘Book Party’, sharing cupcakes and playing book themed party idea using two characters and a problem that needs resolving. The children got into small were thrilled to see two furry visitors, Owen and Pilot Smashing Eggsperiments
games, topped off with a parade, joined by lots of their Mums and Dads. groups and verbally told stories before performing their chosen story to the whole class. She alongside their trainers, who told us all about how
really inspired us all to be storytellers. guide dogs are trained and the important role that they Y3 took part in a marble run challenge which had the children
In the Prep School it was amazing to see how much the children got from our book sharing, not have in society. working together to solve how to make a marble travel down
only from the younger children being read to, but by the older children reading to them. The The children also had a fabulous time surrounded by books in the treasure trove that is a run as slowly as possible. They then took on the cereal box
children were so lovely with the smaller ones, and read so expressively to entertain them. Heffers, with the opportunity to take one home. Y6 had a superb workshop from Forensic Scientist, challenge, making a box that would hold a bag of cereal. They
Lottie Spires who works with the local police. They looked at shoe print evidence, finger prints, looked at design, slogans, characters and ways they could
clothing fibres and DNA samples and even tried on some protective clothing that Mrs Spires uses persuade parents to buy it. Y4 undertook a STEM Tower
when collecting evidence from a crime scene! They learned so much and even had a go at making Challenge. They considered some famous tall buildings
shoe print casts. around the world and discussed the way in which they were
constructed - what enables them to be both tall and stable.
They then worked in teams to create the tallest tower they
could using only newspaper and masking tape to withstand
an “earthquake”. Y5 designed and built, using only paper and
tape, a structure that would support as many books as possible
and took on the egg challenge which involved saving an egg
from breaking when it was dropped from Mr Settle’s office window. The teams used their knowledge
of forces to design some fantastic carriers and three of the six teams managed to save their egg.

Over at the Senior School the students arrived in the morning to see that everyone was dressed Senior Science
as a variety of book characters. The hall, where we all wait in the morning, was a hive of activity, first person to win two nobel prizes. Y9-11 enjoyed a series of masterclasses
everybody talking about their costumes (the best fancy dress award going to Frans, year 7, who with the AQA examiner, Shaun Donnelly, who is famous to students across
made a very impressive Moomin!) and what their lessons would be today. Come form time, we all At Sancton Wood, STEM Week was a great opportunity for the students to the UK as a Youtuber. He delivers ‘free science lessons’, which they all
went upstairs to our form rooms, where we read the first part of a Roald Dahl story (we would hear find out more about what it means to have a career in science, technology, found extremely interesting and helpful. Y7-9 had a few STEM workshops
one passage every lesson). Then, after extended form time, we were met with the smiling face of Mr. engineering or maths. Having guest speakers in from different companies too, organised by Sancton Wood’s science technician, Mrs Angelilo (herself
Settle in his goalkeeper Jersey in the hall. The students then had a fascinating assembly on some like AVEVA (a global leader in engineering and industrial software) a STEM ambassador), making things like UV bead bracelets to study light.
books Mr. Settle had read when he was growing up and he talked about how his taste changed and allowed everyone to have a better understanding of the different jobs
how he doesn’t like some of them now. Afterwards, he read the next passage of the story before they can have in this career field and what it takes to become a scientist, Alongside these inspirational talks, films like ‘Hidden Figures’ and ‘The
everyone went off for the last half an hour of period 1. engineer or mathematician. Imitation Game’ were put on for the students to watch, reminding them of
the progress that has been made over many decades in not just STEM but
In period 2, the year 8s had geography, where they watched ‘The Hunger Games’ because it is also a This, combined with Sancton Wood’s celebration of International Women’s beyond, regardless of gender, sexual orientation, race and religion. This
book and they put a geographic twist on it by working out which biome each part was set in. Later on Day in which the students were all sporting a purple item and made a kind eventful week ended nicely with a chance to dress up as an inspirational
in the day, these students finished watching ‘Skin’ during English about Racial Segregation in South donation to Women’s Aid. It was a wonderful way of remembering the woman, with students coming in costume as Marie Curie, Anne Lister
Africa during the apartied, linking to the book they were studying, ‘Noughts and Crosses’ by Malorie great achievements of women over the years in these careers like Marie and “Rosie The Riveter” from the famous “We Can Do It!” war poster.
Blackman. The year 9s and 10s enjoyed watching Sherlock Holmes in the morning and the year 7s Curie, who conducted a pioneering research on radioactivity and was the Written by Sanika Kale, Y10.
and 8s watched The Life Of Pi in the afternoon. Then came the end of the day where everyone was
sad to see the end of World Book Day 2020 but they can’t wait for it to come around again next year! Celebrating International Women’s Day on the Sunday ahead of STEM week was poignant. The women who work across the STEM field are inspiring generations to come. We were privileged to be
joined by STEM Ambassador Jo Stansfield who gave an inspiring assembly entitled Technology is Everywhere and also by scientist Loredana Cuclan whose talk was entitled “Passionate about Science?
By Jordan Fallon, Yr8 What life may have in store for you.”