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Next week we are hosting Nord Anglia’s first ever regional STEAM Festival in which 10 Nord Anglia schools from the Southeast Asia region will be participating. Over 100 students from Grade 6-9 are being sent to join this event, and we believe that it has the potential to grow and include Primary students in the following years.
So, what is STEAM and why should we, the Primary school community, be excited when it is happening in the Secondary school?
What is STEAM?
Science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics (STEAM) play an invaluable part in helping your child to develop academic, social and personal success.
Through practical, hands-on problem solving, your child will develop transferable skills such as creativity, curiosity, resilience, resourcefulness, collaboration and confidence to help pave the way to a wide open future.
Why should we care?
Through Nord Anglia’s collaboration with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), ranked as the best university in the world for 7 years in a row (according to QS World University Rankings), we will be able to welcome two of the MIT educational team to our school.
In June this year, I had the pleasure of meeting Aimee Gillespie and Carole Urbano during my visit to MIT. They are both passionate educator’s and believers of how schools can learn from MIT’s approach and its founding principle of ‘mind and hand’.
They will be joining us for the STEAM Festival, however they will also support some of the Primary classes during the ‘Hack the Tube’ competition on Wednesday 3 October.
Added to this, they will also lead some professional development for Primary teachers during a meeting on Wednesday to share their wealth of knowledge with our educators.
Another reason why STEAM matters, is that universities and employers are now looking beyond ‘just academic’ scores and are now looking to students who can also find problems, solve problems and collaborate with others.
STEAM is one way to develop those attributes in a transdisciplinary approach. This is one of the reasons why STEAM is such a good fit for our school.
It compliments the transdisciplinary IB PYP curriculum and supports our students in developing their creativity, collaboration and critical thinking skills through engaging, hands on learning experiences.
I am looking forward to the excitement and engagement that this first STEAM Festival brings and anticipate all of our students benefiting from the focus on STEAM here at Northbridge.
We encourage you to follow the action on our school Facebook account.
Click here for more details on the STEAM Festival.
For more on Nord Anglia’s approach to STEAM follow this link.
Last week, our second annual NISC Cup kicked off, with four schools and over one hundred students facing off to see who would be taking home the silverware on offer in separate boys’ and girls’ competitions. Last year CIA girls’ team won a thrilling final and were hoping that the cup would be returning to their school for a second year in a row, while our own NISC boys’ team were hoping to retain their hard won 2023 title.
World Children's Day, celebrated on November 20th, is a global occasion dedicated to promoting the rights and well-being of children everywhere.
Metacognition is the process of thinking about one’s own thinking. It involves reflecting on how you come to conclusions, understanding why you think the way you do, and recognizing patterns in your thought processes. By developing an awareness of your thinking, you can learn to reduce cognitive biases or identify and reuse effective thought processes in different situations. Essentially, metacognition helps people become more intentional and effective in their actions and decision-making.
At Northbridge International School Early Learning, we believe that children's curiosity is a powerful tool for learning, sparking discoveries that help them develop important skills for life. Through loose parts play, we create an environment where children’s natural inquisitiveness shines.