STEAM at Rydes Hill (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics)
The Hub
As a commitment to teaching the latest technologies and to start preparing our pupils for the Fourth Industrial Revolution, in 2023 we made a significant investment in ‘The Hub’, our dedicated STEAM suite. The Hub offers our pupils a modern and dynamic environment that encourages exploration, innovation and discovery. Furthermore, our dedication to teaching a STEAM curriculum is designed to ensure that our females only Prep School engage with subjects that are traditionally male, role modelling a female’s participation in these areas as a norm.
The Hub offers three innovative learning stations that boast state-of-the-art equipment including robotics 3D printing and green screen technology that encourages our pupils to develop their skills and confidence in a range of areas that aim to help ready them for the increasingly digitised world.
- The ‘Skills Lab’ allows pupils to develop their IT skills via activities such as coding, data handling and presentation development.
- The ‘Media Hub’ is dedicated to digital art, photography, video creation and animation.
- The ‘Design Pod’ encourages pupils to develop skills in CAD/CAM (Computer Assisted Design/Computer Assisted Manufacture) and website and computer game design and development.
We are passionate about the online safety of our children and ensure that this is a reoccurring subject that is visited every time we use technology that uses the internet. We have banks of iPads which are used to bring technology into the classroom and beyond. We use ‘Purple Mash’ for our curriculum content, ensuring children are developing skills including manipulating data, animating, coding and presenting information.
We are incredibly excited to explore the opportunities that The Hub offers our pupils and look forward to seeing how this state-of-the-art facility contributes to the modern curriculum at Rydes Hill.
The Science Laboratory
In addition to The Hub, we also have our large, bright and well resourced Science Laboratory where our Prep girls enjoy their investigative science lessons. Practical lessons develop scientific skills: designing investigations, carrying out experiments, learning the importance of fair testing and reliability, recording and evaluating results. Girls are encouraged to develop planning, thinking, time management and co-operative skills through practical tasks to solve problems and explore scientific theories.
We follow the National Curriculum in Middle Preparatory and Higher Preparatory (Years 4 and 5) and to prepare the girls for the senior school examinations at the start of the spring term in Form One (Year 6). After the examinations the girls undertake investigations in more depth and there is the opportunity for independent research to extend their knowledge and understanding in preparation for senior school.
