What is Science for Life, and how will it work?
Science for Life is a new school science development project involving 12 primary and two secondary schools in Islington. It is led by me, the Scientist in Residence at Gillespie Primary School, with support from the Institute of Physics and funding from the Dame Alice Owen Foundation. Our aim is to address the problem of limited and imbalanced science aspirations among school children and young people in the UK. We seek to do this through collaboration between schools, in a way that can be replicated by other groups of schools across our borough and in other areas. In this post I explain how this project will work and what Science for Life will seek to achieve in the coming years. I will write in more detail about the problem we want to address, as well as the rationale and evidence base behind this approach to solving it, in a separate post.
How our project will work
Science for Life is a partnership of a dozen primary schools and two secondary schools in the borough of Islington. We will be collaborating on a common goal: to work together to develop the science capital of the children we teach.
Science capital is a strong indicator of whether a young person is likely to consider that a career in science is an option ‘for them’ as they grow up. Science capital has four dimensions:
1. your knowledge about science
2. your attitudes towards science
3. knowing people who are interested in science
4. your everyday engagement with science.
[see ASPIRES or my post on science capital to read more about this]
There are three strands to the project: STRAND A is targeted according to school priorities, STRAND B offers the same thing for every school, and STRAND C offers opt-in opportunities. This model has been informed by a smaller pilot run last year with some of our primary school partners (called the STEAM hubs), which was funded by the SHINE Trust, along with research and books that I have read about teacher development (in particular Leadership for Teacher Learning by Dylan Wiliam) as well as by my previous experience working in Initial Teacher Education. The approach to CPD and resources (STRAND B) is modelled on the way in which the Ogden Trust supports its primary physics partnerships — I am the Ogden Trust’s Regional Representative in Primary Science for London & Surrey alongside my role at Gillespie.
STRAND A: The Hubs are teacher learning communities, through which science leads will collaborate on their own school priorities by undertaking action research. The three initial hubs are: Curriculum Hub (developing science capital through the science curriculum), Committee Hub (developing science capital through child leadership of science) and Secondary Hub (improving transition from primary to secondary and maintaining science capital through KS3).
STRAND B: subject-specific CPD and resources will be developed and delivered to all schools. This will include consideration of how all four dimensions of science capital can be developed and embedded (knowledge, attitudes, knowing science advocates & everyday engagement). This model of CPD and associated resource boxes is based on our approach to CPD at the Ogden Trust, which I have found to work extremely well. Secondary schools will receive additional support with subject knowledge and pedagogical development from the Institute of Physics.
STRAND C: opportunities through the network will be offered to all schools. For instance, they will be invited and supported to take part in and run competitions, training, events, trips and anything else that comes up. Resources will be shared and we will be able to help each other out with questions, challenges and opportunities that come up along the way.
In addition to the aim of developing children’s science capital, I am well aware that the turnover of staff and of science leadership roles in schools is high, especially in London. I am hoping that the teachers involved in this project will feel valued, stimulated and nurtured, and that it will help them develop and continue to do the incredible work that they do for years to come. The wonderful enthusiasm and immense support I have received from my own head teacher and science lead at Gillespie, as well as from colleagues in our partner schools over the past three years, gives me immense hope for the future of science in our schools.
Questions
- Do you have any constructive feedback on this model that can help me improve it? Let me know!
- Have you read any research or seen any examples of good practice that you think I should know about? Please share!
- Are you a science specialist or an expert in CPD design or professional learning communities, and want to chat? Get in touch!
- Are you doing something similar and want to chat?
Email: carole@gillespie.islington.sch.uk
Twitter: https://twitter.com/HelpfulScience
Finally, here’s a big thank you to everyone who has given me feedback on drafts of this blog post : )
