Current Enthuse Projects

DTSA works on Enthuse Partnerships in conjunction with employers and STEM Learning.  If you would like to be one of these employers and fund one of our projects in the East Midlands then please contact Finance@DTSA.org.uk.

ENTHUSE Partnerships improve young people’s attainment and engagement in STEM subjects and develop awareness and understanding of STEM careers, contributing to the Gatsby Careers Benchmarks.

At the heart of every ENTHUSE Partnership is a collaboration between 8-10 schools or colleges, supported by coaching from a DTSA colleague over 2 years.

Impact

• A greater variety of activities in the classroom, improved learning, and engagement was achieved through sharing ideas and methods within the partnership
• Children are more enthusiastic about STEM and have a greater awareness of STEM subjects and topics
• Sharing practices has inspired both staff and students in relation to science
• STEM ambassasors have improved engagement and communication on STEM topics
• Enthusiasm for STEM topics has increased by holding science days within schools

Impact

• Training was delivered on working scientifically and disciplinary knowledge aspects of the science curriculum, from EYFS to KS4 levels
• Delivery of CPD helped to establish the focus of STEM within the school’s practices and methods
• Hosted a cross-schools STEM club competition, which was established and supported by two STEM Ambassadors
• STEM Ambassadors delivered a lecture on Black Holes for Triple Science scholars
• There has been an immediate impact for some students through the new CPD and curriculum changes
• Improved practices in teaching, with improved teacher knowledge and understanding has been identified in lesson planning and curriculum codification, assessment content and lesson observations.

Impact

• A headteacher CPD survey taken across the partnership showed that Geography in particular was seen as a hugely valuable and enjoyable CPD offering
• A Collaborative  Deep Dive was organised at Millfield L.E.A.D. Academy, which enabled Science Leaders to see high-quality science provision in action, as well as to develop their own science leadership through Jane Banham’s high-quality modelling and reflective activities
  • demystification of the deep dive process
  • discussion of issues was effectively facilitated
  • valuable insights shared from subject specialists regarding information and ideas about teaching and learning in science
  • time for reflection was effective and valuable
  • sharing of high quality practices and methods
  • provide a comprehensive overview of what science looks like across the entire school age range
• “The Deep Dive was incredibly useful. As a teacher who has just taken over as a science lead, it allowed me to see quality practice, understand expectations for a deep dive and to see what science looks like across a school. I took away so many ideas that I have already began to implement. Best training I have been on in a long time!”
• There is a newly perceived ‘buzz’ in the partner schools related to STEM CPD, which has led to requests for further in-school, whole-staff training. This enables the partnership to embed best practice across the schools, and shows that the profile of science is increase across the trust primary schools as more and more headteachers prioritise this CPD.

“I would like to thank you again for the wealth of knowledge you provided me with on the deep dive day at Millfield. Your passion and excitement for science really came across, which I found inspiring.”

Impact

• Training around Ofsted’s primary science report was well-received, delivering informative and up-to-date CPD that provided teachers with the latest findings and more recent practices to implement in their own classrooms
• Allowed teachers to feel more prepared for Ofsted as subject leaders
• Improved understanding of the relationship between science and other curriculum subjects, and in what order
• Relevant focus on EYFS and KS1 provided where necessary, allowing tailored content to be delivered to schools at the right level for their teaching

Impact

• A comprehensive and impactful plan has been set up from the end of this year and next, looking at EYFS, DT, Geography and Science
• Primary-level STEM clubs are on the agenda for next year
• QA and monitoring from DT has shown that children are more engaged in DT-related learning, and staff are becoming more confident in this subject
• Primary schools have updated and modified their knowledge strips as a result of training received.

“Children are telling us more clearly about their learning and using the correct vocabulary, making links to previous or other curriculum learning.”

“As part of a Trust we regularly review what is happening across the primary academies. With a particular focus on STEM subjects we can see evidence of improvement, new ideas and revisiting curriculum documents to ensure correct progression and that all aspects and strands of subjects are covered appropriately. Resources have also been audited.”

Impact

• Staff have been able to provide more hands on experiences for students due to an increased understanding.
• Funding from the SLP allowed TGS to take students to the STEM On The Move event at East Coast College
• Student attendance at STEM Club increased by 50% at TGS
• Pupils are demonstrating a more positive opinion of science

“The biggest success this term has been within the science technician team. There has been a legacy of low engagement in CPD and networking across this group which has in some cases limited improvements and in others left individuals feeling isolated. From these beginnings, our technicians are like a team reborn. Engagement in CPD is at an all-time high and networking is happening organically across schools without prompting. Examples of this would include one of our technicians offering to go and support a new technician at a different school; the technicians requesting and agreeing their own CPD programme for a training day; an active swap-shop being established for surplus resources across network schools.

We now have a stable and happy technician team across schools in the partnership. Happy technicians make for happier teachers. There have been reports of new and novel practicals being carried out at schools due to upskilled technicans and their willingness to share ideas and resources.

Science and maths teams from across the trust have begun working more closely together and in one school have had joint-whole dept CPD focussing on a coherent and consistent approach to ratio tables (aka proportional reasoning grids).”

Impact

• Science trips for Year Four pupils to places such as the Curiosity Cube at SWA
• Improved quality of teaching
• Feedback on development trackers
• Good attitude to science learning
• Better engagement in extracurricular activities and enrichment opportunities.
• The new Science lead has attended some of the STEM / Enthuse online CPD which has inspired her to set up a STEM / Science club at school with lots of keen pupils who are eager to attend the lunch time enrichment.
• During wet lunch and break times, children have been taking part in doing different STEM activities which has contributed to developing the children’s scientific curiosity.
• There has been an increased level of pupil engagement in STEM Science activities. This has been measured by the pupils’ interest in practical Science activities.

“Children are even more motivated to engage in Scientific activities and are motivated to join the STEM club that is going to be run in the not so distant future.”

Impact

• Positively impacting teacher pedagogy and confidence in delivering key knowledge within subjects.
• Increased student interest and engagement in class
• More of a buzz around science planning

Impact

• Basic communication in Makaton which is a useful skill to engage withm for the children’s benefit, especially those with that need it, as well as EAL children
• After looking at resources on STEM in Early Years and accessing the Engineering reports, the partnership used these concepts to enhance outdoor play for all pupils based on loose parts play. This has been really successful and great to see child-initiated STEM learning outside of structured lesson time. This is going to be a long term project that they hope to enhance with more outdoor opportunities for play and learning and which has a curricular lead attached
•  The Geography lead found the Integrating climate change into the primary curriculum course inspirational and has begun work on embedding aspects of this training into our curriculum.
• Pupils are benefitting from more engaging lesson content which has been evident in learning walks where high levels of engagement and enjoyment were visible in science/STEM lessons.
• Termly assessment shows more children on track with learning at this point in the year than in previous years. Teachers felt that this was because the children had been more engaged with more practical teaching activities.

Impact

• Integrating climate change into the Primary curriculum and, kickstarting a focus on integrating climate change into the primary science and geography curriculum
• Updating of assessment expectations

Impact

• The Science Lead was able to attend AR training in York and has many ideas now to take into the curriculum, based upon this training.

“As part of this I have set up a club for STEM Robotics and I’m also investigating AI and Cyber security. This enables me to have the confidence to set up this extracurricular club and the students have engaged well with this as a result. It has encouraged some students to become interested in STEM subjects as a potential career path too, through discussions I have had with them.”

Impact

• Allestree and Bemrose schools have signed up for the MOD Cyber Proposal offer via STEM Learning and the SLP
• Attendance by technicians and teaching staff has resulted in improved knowledge and understanding, and improved provision in a practical offering
• Anecdotal evidence via student voice suggests that students appreciate the wider range of practicals schools are now able to offer
• Teaching staff appreciate the advice and guidance given by technicians following the practical training they have received.

Impact

• Cross curricular links, school collaboration and access to future projects impact has been evidenced by feedback from teachers and students, assessment of progress through school assessment processes and consideration of base line data and predicted grades
• Faraday challenge 4 schools took part in the Faraday challenge in March 2024 
• Improvements have been observed through the engagement levels of teachers on the courses; observations of trainee teachers; coaching of teachers; attainment data as and when available; impact on the broader curriculum such as clubs and the engagement with those; confidence levels in delivering out of specialism
• The support from the ENTHUSE partnership has been outstanding

Impact

• We have re launched our eco council and they have been working on developing the nature garden further 
• Levels of student enjoyment have been seen through child interviews.

Impact

• CPD for staff has been provided which has led to key ideas being shared during staff meetings and new practices being put in place
• Subject and phase leaders have improved knowledge and professional development
• Staff have been able to access specialist guidance in areas which are not often allocated during specific staff meeting time, such as Design and Technology or specific Science knowledge
• Science book look showed that there was the beginnings of change in the way Science was taught and recorded which is a direct impact of CPD
• Impact is being measured through regular monitoring processes such as a termly subject deep dives. This involves looking at work, observing lessons, and talking to students. In STEM subjects there has been an improvement on previous years in terms of the confidence of teachers teaching STEM subjects, especially DT and practical Science, which teachers lacked the confidence to teach before

“We welcomed 42 primary school children to take part in this year’s Primary Maths Challenge. We had 11 teams selected from our local primary schools to take part in different maths solving activities. Some of our Year 11 students came in to support the teams.”

Impact

• Space Week at Sandfield was hugely successful, resulting in the production of a special ‘newspaper’ made by Year 6 reporters
• More science leads are kept up to date with recent developments, such as new Explorify resources and focussing on the 10 key issues in teaching primary Science
• Science leads understand the impact of new initiatives
• Teacher and pupil attitudes towards Science have improved
• Schools are looking at tracking data for Autumn 2022 which is encouraging as not all schools did this for the whole school.
• Teachers in schools have reported that Working Scientifically is being covered more within the Programmes of Study units and teachers are becoming more focused on just one or two objectives whilst teaching.

Impact

• It is evident through lesson observations, planning scrutiny, and pupil voice that some of the ideas from CPD have been implemented. Pupils are very enthusiastic about STEM learning and the Working Scientifically strand was strong.
• Science Subject leads have shared with staff in their school settings, the useful learning points from the CPD. The Science Subject leads will monitor these during the coming terms.
• Staff are enthused by the project, also helping with provision of high quality resources and have arranged for use of Micro:bits and data loggers for the second half of the year. They are keen to access CPD too, to help them use the resources effectively.

Impact for Teachers

• Upskilled teachers who are more confident and knowledgeable in DT. Staff are equipped with the ability to plan high quality, sequential and progressive lessons that engage and challenge all children.
• Meaningful cross curricular links are being promoted between STEM subjects in the National Curriculum.
• The importance of STEM subjects for Secondary learning and beyond is being promoted, and how these skills can be transferrable and useful for children’s future careers.

Impact for Pupils

• Pupils have a better idea of how DT looks in the wider world and have [been given] more opportunities to take risks, to become resourceful, innovative, and enterprising.
• Ensuring that it is accessible for all pupils including SEND, but also to extend greater depth in children and those who have a keen interest in STEM subjects.
• Helping children to see how important STEM subjects are for our rapidly changing world and understanding how these skills can be transferrable and useful for their future careers.

Impact 

• Improvement in Assessment and using TAPS. What are we looking for in Primary Science Lessons.
• Discussions with staff and thinking about future planning on assessment. Validating teacher judgments and creating consistency with assessment.
• Having accurate assessment of student and improved teacher confidence in delivery and assessment.
• STEM club: ran for 6 weeks in collaboration with the National Space Centre – very successful & inspiring.
• Staff engaging in the use of Explorify has increased with them reporting what they have used & pupils enjoy it as part of their lessons.

Impact 

• Improved partnerships with local industry, develop foundational data from which to measure partnership predicted impacts, take student feedback on events and can record and share this with STEM providers.
• Increased Awareness of STEM careers and student aspirations using a 7 question survey based on STEM Learning evaluation tools and Aspires Science Capital research ‘student aspiration questionnaire, an MS forms survey to quickly capture this data from all KS3 students, and use of Power Bi for analysis/graphical representations.
• Embedding industry and community links in the curriculum. An initial audit by each school will act as baseline data and measure of impact and implementation throughout the project, helping develop each school’s individual strategy on embedding careers into SOW by highlighting areas of initial maximum impact ‘quick wins’, as well as longer term planning.

Impact 

• Students received training on how to use the Micro Bits at Acle and the D&T leads/ICT Leads deployed them.
• Year 7 feedback was that they were loving using them in computer science.
• Inset day curriculum planning was held with the department and run by Michael on Microbits. Internal staff upskilling so that a maths teacher could help out with subject delivery.

Impact 

• Coming soon