How to encourage a love of STEM from an early age

Head of Science Nick Welford explores ways in which to encourage scientific investigation from an early age and explains why Bryanston pupils are given opportunities to solve problems through research and experimentation… from Nobel Prize winner Fred Sanger, and beyond!

Experimentation is part of human nature; our biological evolution has progressed hand in hand with technological revolution. Feats of engineering have only become possible as our understanding of materials and our ability to manipulate them have improved. Extending scientific knowledge requires theoretical grounding in a subject, a hypothesis and the ability to test it in a valid manner. Our inherent inquisitive nature and ability to communicate has resulted in the collective knowledge that we currently enjoy.

My father spent many years as a Research and Development Officer for the RNLI, and as such he was asked to undertake various investigations, from boat design to protective clothing to self-righting apparatus. When tasked with assessing commercial night vision goggles, he designed a test that involved a venue that allowed a decent line of sight (Worbarrow Bay), a willing volunteer (me as a ten-year-old) and a selection of night vision goggles. In the dead of night (without a moon), I was given a radio and instructed to walk alone around the bay, then he would try and find me with various image intensifiers. Although I was too young to realise it, I had been exposed to scientific method; he had an independent variable (brand of goggles), a dependent variable (how well he could see me) and control variables (constantly low ambient light and my distance from him). With childhood experiences such as these, it was only natural for me to follow sciences at A level and university.

Studying science at Bryanston

So how should we foster an interest in science and encourage STEM activities in young people today? The answer lies with posing problems and giving opportunities to solve them through research and experimentation. Often the key to engaging pupils is to NOT give them the answer! Another factor is to present a problem that is commensurate with the level of understanding. For those who like crosswords, the level of difficulty is all important; too easy and a clue is not engaging; too hard and one gives up. The trick as a science teacher is to find that ‘Goldilocks’ zone when presenting a practical problem.

In both GCSE and A level science lessons, Bryanston pupils are regularly offered the opportunity to undertake practical work to solve a question. A large proportion of an IB science subject is assessed on a pupil’s ability to formulate a research question and devise experiments to test it. Pupils can also engage in extra-curricular opportunities; our Head of Physics recently challenged a group of girls to improve farming methods in Zambia. The team were subsequently awarded second place in the International Soroptimist STEM Challenge. KS5 pupils can undertake the CREST challenge, giving them the chance to research scientific topics and present their findings to their peers. For the first time this year, A3 pupils from Bryanston go up against Eton pupils in an essay competition, written on their own choice of engineering topic.

Frederick Sanger, Old Bryanstonian and Nobel Prize winner

Such activities have always been offered to Bryanston pupils; in the 1930s Fred Sanger finished his school certificate early, which allowed him a year of experimenting with his chemistry master, Geoffrey Ordish. Sanger went on to win two Nobel Prizes; his second was for a creative stroke of genius where he combined some relatively straightforward biochemical steps to provide a method for ‘reading’ DNA. As I write this, the Novel Coronavirus is steadily making its way across the planet. Identifying the DNA sequence of this virus (discoverable using a method based on Sanger’s work) may well prove instrumental in resolving the epidemic.

Bryanston's Sanger Centre

There will always be many unanswered science questions and many curious young people; tapping into that curiosity is the key for any society. Harvesting energy from fusion, advancing cancer treatment or creating methods for adapting and mitigating climate change. The question is… where should we start?

You can follow Bryanston's science department on Twitter @BrySci.

Political education in schools is imperative and must become a priority

Head of Politics William Bridges reflects on the importance of political education in schools and how best to engage pupils in political discussion both in the classroom and at home… 

British politics. Is it broken?

If it’s not yet broken, it’s certainly creaking under immense pressure. So how do we solve it? How do we repair the division and return to the ‘normal’ British politics of the past (if that’s possible or even desirable)?

The answer is, perhaps, to quote Blair: “education, education, education.”

We’ve all done it. We’ve all got to the ballot with the intention to vote, only to get there, and not really know who to vote for. Some of us haven’t even made it to the polling station for the same reason. Many people only engage in politics through voting and there is the problem: if we don’t even know who to vote for, how can we even begin to solve the deep-seated ills that face British politics?

Who’s who? Who stands for what? What difference does my vote even make? These are some of the most frequently asked questions at the beginning of the A3 (lower sixth) Politics course. But they are also the same questions that are asked by D or C (Year 9 or 10) pupils in PSRE, in conversations in tutorials and by colleagues in the Common Room.

Pupils at Bryanston are enthused, engaged and willing to participate in politics if given the opportunity. The numbers of pupils studying Politics at A level continue to grow year on year; we have a thriving Model United Nations and Debating Society. New initiatives in D activities, The Cabinet (Bryanston’s first Politics magazine) and UK Parliament Week all give pupils more opportunities to participate in politics now than ever before.

As vital as this is, we must go further. In this increasingly volatile and dangerous world, where democracy appears to be under genuine threat, it’s the duty of all of us – teachers, parents and guardians – to be able to uphold the fundamental British values of democracy, the rule of law and tolerance. The real question is this: how can we be expected to uphold this if our own political education is poor or even non-existent?

I was recently lucky enough to spend three days in Parliament with 70 teachers taking part in UK Parliament’s Teachers’ Institute. Since its launch in 2006, the Teachers’ Institute has trained more than 800 teachers from across the UK, giving us a detailed understanding of the work of the House of Commons and Lords. Those selected to attend Teachers’ Institute go on to become UK Parliament Teacher Ambassadors for Parliament's Education and Engagement Service and train their students and colleagues about the role of the UK Parliament.

And this is where we can start to repair and rebuild our politics – in the classroom. We can’t just expect young people to respect democracy. We can’t just expect them to understand the rule of law. We can’t just expect them to accept parliamentary democracy as the form of government that works for them if they don’t know what it is or how it works.

How can you begin to fix a car that’s misfiring if you don’t even know what a spark plug is? You can’t - you have to learn what the spark plug is, what it does, and how to change it if it’s dead. More than that, you also have to learn that a misfiring car can be caused by more than a faulty spark plug. There isn’t just one answer to one problem.

The Teachers’ Institute taught us the importance of political education as a tool to help heal the divide in politics, and the importance of working with colleagues across a range of schools in order to achieve this.

But it isn’t just in the classroom where we can begin to fix these problems. Engaging pupils in discussion at home, probing their thoughts on the news and asking their opinions about the goings on in our country and across the world is as important.

Discussion lays a foundation stone of engagement that will later become participation. And if Brexit has told us anything, it is that young people have the potential to be a very powerful force in British politics. They may, in fact, even hold the solutions to release the pressure on the political system.

The IB: as good as it gets!

It’s the time of year where as a school we gear up to admit a fine cohort of sixth formers for September 2019. Bryanston has always welcomed a pleasing number and quality of candidates at this point, and the existing yeargroups, year on year, enjoy and benefit from the injection of new ideas, talents, and energies.

One of the attractions of Bryanston (and there are many) is that we offer the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme (IBDP) alongside the now very traditional A levels. This provides the school with a varied offering and one which attracts really interesting pupils who study one or the other programme.

What is it about the IBDP that means it’s worth offering?  And how do schools convey that to 16 year olds and their parents without seeming to diminish the national A level programme?

I think there are some very key reasons for offering the IBDP that fit right into our Bryanston profile of all we do.  And that’s why Bryanston is a great place to study the IBDP.

1.      The Bryanston model of education is  and always has been all about producing independent learners and learners who will contribute their own particular talents to the world.  The tutorial system here of one-to-one support and guidance is a jewel in the crown for all pupils, whatever they are studying.  But in terms of a pupil managing the IB and learning fast the techniques of research and independent study, this tutorial approach is ideal.

2.   Bryanston rejoices in pupils with a wide range of talent.  They do not necessarily want to confine themselves to three subjects at A level (though some do) nor to follow necessarily an entirely ‘traditional’ system.  They may want to study Film or Psychology, both of which subjects have a strong syllabus at IB.  They may want to study English Literature which is not focused mainly on dead white males.  They may want to keep up a level of Maths to make them ready for their life in work, but not wish to study it at a higher level. They may be bilingual and wish to study both their best languages as a Language Av.

3.   The pupils enjoy the Core in the IB as much as they do their main subjects.  The extended essay allows them to research at a level which university admissions offices find compelling;  the CAS (Creativity, Activity, Service) element is a key part of the diploma making sense of the world beyond their immediate walls; the ToK (Theory of Knowledge) component might be the best bit of their week.  The IB is in other words a diploma; the six subjects interrelate and the Core pins them together.  The diploma is about producing young adults who are ready to learn for the rest of their lives and to be part of a global world not just a small and self-referential slice of it.

4.   Bryanston has always prided itself on pupils leaving the school ready to live happy and purposeful lives, and ready to contribute to the wider world.  This is closely aligned to the IB’s mission. After Bryanston, pupils tend to study at university and importantly to study at the university which suits their interests and abilities in terms of providing the best degree course in that subject and for that pupil.  There is an increasingly international flavour in that respect from Georgetown to Melbourne from Cambridge to Berklee.  The world’s an exciting place and the IB prepares pupils for that beyond our foggy Brexit-obsessed island.

This is not to say that you cannot perfectly well achieve most or all of that whilst studying A levels. You can, but the IB insists upon it; has a mission and a vision; marries in its educational provision the rigorous with the comprehensive; promotes critical thinking throughout all subjects and the core; encourages cultural awareness, global responsibility, and resilience. It is as their motto states: ‘education for a better world’.

It’s hard to argue with. There are reasons for not studying the IB of course, but it’s hard to accept the one that A levels are ‘easier’. For two good reasons: (i) why is that in any way a good thing? And (ii) it’s not true. A levels are harder than they were, have no coursework and will not, in the next few years, be anywhere near as accessible to all as they once were. This may not be a bad thing, but it only reinforces the fact that they are not the ‘easier’ option.

So, at this time of thinking about the sixth form and future choices, I heartily recommend the outward looking, active and participatory, critical and creative IB diploma. I honestly think it’s as good as it gets.

Speech Day reflections

As another school year comes to an end, Sarah Thomas looks ahead to the future with one foot firmly rooted in the past. Discover why she believes that Bryanston’s motto of “Et Nova et Vetera” – both the new and the old – is more apt than ever.

Back in January, Bryanston turned 90 and through OB Simon Wheeler’s (C ’93) extraordinary series of films, we are able to look back and remind ourselves of why this school is so special. The place, the people, the ideas and the principles that continue to guide us. In June, we were able to look forward, with the announcement of my successor.  I’m delighted that Mark Mortimer will be leading Bryanston onwards and upwards from September 2019 and look forward to having a year in which I can do whatever makes most sense to allow him, his lovely wife Anna and their three children, to get to know this wonderful school. 

Speeches in the Elder Concert Hall

At last year’s Speech Day, the Chairman spoke on the theme of necessary change and evolution within schools. Schools do change.  They must; they would disappear into oblivion if they did not.  But that does not mean that the things that matter must change.  Our guiding principles of creativity, breadth of ambition, individuality, the sense of a loving family, of humanity, and of resilience, have been embedded in our DNA since 1928 and will endure, I am certain, because of Bryanston’s collective good sense, the quality of the governors, and their choice of excellent headmasters. Those guiding principles will ensure that Bryanston continues to evolve boldly and positively, without losing the critical constituents of what makes Bryanston Bryanston.

Peter Tait, former headmaster of Sherborne Prep and a great friend of Bryanston, likes to torment us with this question: ‘What is a proper curriculum?’ Are we still, in effect, teaching what we taught 50 years ago, regardless of new, more relevant subjects, and without reference to what our pupils actually learn from them?  Teaching is not after all learning.  Then there are the real-world issues: funding for state schools and affordability for the independent sector; the fact that more overseas children are now educated in branches of UK independent schools abroad than here in the UK; and above all there’s the looming threat of AI. What kind of world are we actually preparing our young people for? And how do independent schools – how does Bryanston – stay relevant in the face of the fantastically significant changes that are coming our way? 

Duncan Emerson directs the orchestra

Sir Anthony Seldon in his book The Fourth Education Revolution challenges the model which most schools still adhere to – that of The Third Revolution: industrialised learning; schools as factories; chalk and talk, or its 21^st-century equivalent, Powerpoint and talk. Sir Anthony predicts we will meet the challenges of AI by adopting a new model and following a 5-point plan: (i) ending early specialisation in schools; (ii) investing in staff who understand learning and analytics and technology; (iii) emphasising the human in education, to produce competent adults who are better than any algorithm; (iv) personalising learning; (v) challenging and stretching young people, by making school more than about lessons.

Guests relax in the sunshine

This is precisely the model that Bryanston has striven to follow, and with some success, over the past 90 years, often in defiance of the conventional wisdom that academic success is the be all and end all. Ending early specialisation? Embracing personalised learning? Stretching our pupils beyond the classroom? Look at our tutorial system and the Dalton Plan, our correction periods and one-to-one attention to the individual.  Added to that, we have a curriculum that is particularly diverse in the formative D year, an extraordinary range of extra-curricular opportunities and an A level programme which always seeks to ensure there are no impossible subject combinations. And better still, the IB.

Tennis on the grass courts

Bryanston’s model has explicitly set out to help children to develop the human.  It’s why Bryanstonians invariably end up in such a range of careers and don’t necessarily trot off into those professions which, we are told, will soon no longer exist. At Bryanston we have always known that education is not about mere subjects.  It’s about an outlook, an attitude, a lifelong ability to learn and adapt; to work in teams; to influence and persuade; to direct and lead. To laugh at yourself and to put things right when you’ve gone wrong. The future requires real people, with real values and real emotional intelligence. And real education.

Whilst the changes technology have brought have been huge (both for good and bad) I am happy to predict that one of the longer terms effects might be that we refocus upon, and rejoice in, what makes us human, not machine. Because the world changes – we all know that – but what does not change is what it takes to be human.