STEAM in Saint Petersburg

It is heartwarming to see the vision of a STEAM room come to fruition at the British School in Saint Petersburg.

Where so many schools use STEAM as an advertising gimmick, or to attract potential parents, it is one thing to set up a room such as this- but a completely different thing to use it as an integral and inspiring aspect of the curriculum.

The STEAM room ay BSSP was a project that was delivered in consultation with my expertise in STEAM related subjects and experiences of teaching students from KS1-KS5.

The room was set up with a view to building a facility that would be sustainable in line with the future growth of the school.

Having been fortunate enough to work with Ian, I sought his consultation prior to creating our very own STEAM room at The British School of St Petersburg.Explaining what we wanted to achieve with a relatively small space, Ian was able to guide me through the process to maximise the space available in terms of equipment and aesthetics. At the very start of the project, we both spoke about the importance of having a STEAM room that can be used and utilised by the children and staff, rather than having a room that looks attractive but isn't used to its full potential. Certainly without Ian's input, we wouldn't have been able to create so many wonderful products and opportunities for our children. Leon Clarke, Headteacher.

Anti-racism working group

For the past few terms I have been part of the Anti-racism working group in school.

Following on from feedback in other Asian schools, who 'did not want to incite negative relations between China and the US' or insisting that ‘now is not the correct time’ and ‘lets wait and do this properly (…and not doing so)’ or even, in the case of an unnamed school 'do not overreact to events [the death of George Flloyd] in America’.

Fast forward one year, moving to a new country and a new school.

It has been great to see such a proactive staff driven (prompted by alumni) approach to tackling this issue at a levels of the institution.

Yesterday we discussed about how we can celebrate different cultures within our school, how we can help and support those less fortunate, what diversity should look like, as well as how we can raise awareness of these issues and empower our students.

I found the discussions and work that has happened with regards to recruitment particularly interesting- and how we must ‘look at the street level’ as a starting point to 'define what culture is’ within our context, before attempting to tackle any issues we feel need to be addressed.

Blogging about blogs.

After living and working in China for the past 6 years- and more recently moving to Malaysia- I have decided to re-start my teaching and learning blog.

Primarily as a way of emptying my thoughts at the end of a busy day. Secondly as good professional practice. Thirdly- I am no longer stuck behind the 'great firewall'.

My previous (Wordpress) blog can be found here.