Whitburn Church of England Academy

All pupils in Years 7 to 10 will be taking part in our annual STEM Day. There is a continued demand both regionally and nationally to raise standards in STEM (Science, Technology Engineering and Mathematics) subjects.

In order to help raise the profile of these subjects in a fun and informative way, we have chosen the central theme of the day to be ‘DNA’. The pupils will follow the usual school timings for the day, beginning in their form rooms (where they will be given a timetable for the day) and ending in the Sports Hall for our ‘Super STEM quiz’.

Each year group will experience what is on offer from each Faculty below:

• Science and Technology: Inheritance – inheriting physical characteristics for our parents;
• Art, Culture Sport and Languages: Modelling DNA – what does DNA ‘look-like’;
• Humanities: Ethics of manipulating DNA – GM Crops & designer babies;
• Mathematics and ICT: Coding – the hidden coded instruction in our DNA.

We are very much looking forward to this exciting day, and hope our pupils come away from their activities having learned a great deal whilst having fun. In order to help build their DNA models, it would be useful if the pupils in Years 7, 8 and 9 could bring a cardboard tube from a kitchen roll and their usual equipment for learning, including a ruler.

Year 11 pupils will take part in the annual Super Revision Day which will be held in the Sixth Form Centre.

Year 12 students will be at Sunderland University to learn more about the UCAS application process and the ‘Uni Frog’ university and careers website.