This week, our school was alive with excitement as we welcomed the Spirax Sarco Group for a truly inspiring STEM Day. It was wonderful to see so many Spirax Sarco employees generously giving up their time to engage with our children, fostering curiosity, enthusiasm and a love of science and engineering. Children across the school took part in a wide range of hands-on STEM activities throughout the day.
EYFS children participated in an activity inspired by Earth Day, linking this to their ‘I Wonder’ topic by talking about our Earth and how we can look after it. The children explored this through a creative activity, using pipettes to drop blue and green coloured water onto cotton pads to make their own Earth pictures. They learned that approximately three-quarters of the Earth is made up of water, so they used three drops of blue for every one drop of green.
Year 1 designed and built their own functioning lighthouses, focusing on structure and decoration. Working in small teams, they used junk modelling materials and battery‑powered tea lights to bring their designs to life, developing early design and manufacturing skills while encouraging creativity and teamwork.
Year 2 explored aerodynamics and stability during their Extreme Paper Planes workshop. Using a design‑build‑test approach, the children experimented with different folds to see how far their planes could travel and how many “passengers” they could carry, encouraging scientific thinking through testing, refining and reflecting on results.
Year 3 astounded us with their creativity and teamwork during the Bottle Rockets workshop. Pupils designed and built rockets before launching them outdoors using water and air pressure. Through testing and refinement, they learned about energy storage and aerodynamics, with some rockets soaring spectacularly into the sky.
Year 4 enjoyed a fantastic STEM morning exploring structures using K’NEX. They learned about strong shapes, particularly triangles, before working in groups to build the tallest structures using triangular supports – some reaching nearly a metre high without extra support. They then designed and built bridges capable of carrying a golf ball or toy car, with every group successfully creating a working model while applying their understanding of geometry and structural engineering.
Year 5 embarked on an ambitious project, designing and engineering lighthouses equipped with their own electrical systems. Through a guided build, the children learned how electricity works by creating circuits using bulbs and motors to produce a flashing light. The workshop combined electronics, manufacturing and presentation skills with impressive results.
Year 6 designed and built race cars, exploring rolling resistance, weight and aerodynamics. Each car met specific requirements, weighing between 50g and 250g and fitting a narrow, confined track. Classes raced against each other before an exciting final featuring the top three cars from each class, as well as races between teachers’ cars and those made by Spirax Sarco staff, bringing science and engineering concepts vividly to life.
All activities were expertly led by Spirax Sarco employees, who shared insights into their careers and acted as aspirational role models for our pupils. The day concluded with an assembly where children showcased their learning, reflecting thoughtfully on their projects and demonstrating their impressive STEM skills.
A huge thank you to Paul, Christian and the entire Spirax Sarco team for making the day such a memorable and inspiring experience for everyone involved.
