EXPLORING OUR NATIONAL SCIENCE SUMMER SCHOOL
PROGRAMME 2023/2024
The challenge
How can we raise the aspirations of local young people from all backgrounds by creating a practical learning by doing culture linking them to innovative businesses and potential career opportunities in STEAM, and support businesses to grow future talent?
Professor Brian Cox, Britain’s leading science communicator and Co-Founder of Science Summer School, sent this message to students prior to their attending these events:
“Here in the UK we need significantly more scientists and engineers. There are huge opportunities out there but you may not know what those opportunities are. You may not have considered that you could be a biologist or an astronomer or a space craft engineer. There are hundreds, probably thousands of potential careers, futures that you could choose. The idea of the Science Summer School is to see if there is anything that people talk about that interests you. Also, really importantly I think, it’s an opportunity for you to make connections with people in industry, people in universities, in colleges, apprenticeships; a whole range of things that you could possibly do. Have a great day”.
Professor Brian Cox, CBE OBE FRS
Co-Founder – Science Summer School
Professor of Particle Physics, The University of Manchester
“We are delighted to have co-presented four major Science Summer School events between July 2023 and January 2024 with our local partners in London, Surrey, South Yorkshire and Northern Ireland. We hope you enjoy the films, photographs and programmes below and get a flavour of these fantastic events and the work we are doing.
Our grateful thanks to the many colleagues who have worked tirelessly to make these events happen so successfully. They are all passionate about introducing young people to the incredible world of STEAM (science, technology education, arts and mathematics) and the many exciting career opportunities which either already exist or may emerge in coming years as new ideas and technologies are developed.
Professor Brian Cox and I co-founded this programme in 2012 and I thank him for his help in encouraging future generations of scientists and engineers here in the UK”.
Lord Andrew Mawson OBE
Co-Founder – Science Summer School
Chairman – Well North Enterprises
The approach
A chance conversation led Professor Brian Cox and Lord Andrew Mawson to create the Science Summer School. Their ambitious aim is to make Britain the best place to do science and engineering by inspiring the UK’s next generation of young scientists, engineers and inventors.
Launched in 2012 at St Paul’s Way Trust School in East London, the Science Summer School programme is expanding nationally on a year-round basis in partnership with Well North Enterprises.
From London to Northern Ireland, Surrey to South Yorkshire, our collaboration with local partners has established Science Summer School events, each a testament to the power of collective effort and dedication. Through immersive experiences and engaging programmes, we've provided over 2000 students with a glimpse into the expansive world of STEAM and its boundless career prospects.
Drawing inspiration from the diversity of STEAM disciplines, we worked with our partners to curate a bepoke programme tailored to local education institutions. From interactive workshops to thought-provoking presentations, every aspect of our approach is crafted to provide students with a holistic understanding of the myriad opportunities within STEAM.
The event films below really bring this project to life, showcasing the energy and passion which can be ignited when young people, businesses, leaders, entrepreneurs and educators are brought together to explore the world class science and engineering taking place in the UK today.
Read on to learn more about each event and explore event programmes in detail.
St Pauls Way Science Summer School
Tower Hamlets, East London, England
July, 2023
Professor Brian Cox and Lord Andrew Mawson co-founded Science Summer School at St Paul’s Way Trust School in Tower Hamlets, East London in 2012. Since its inception, Professor Cox has spoken at every event.
Brooklands Innovation Academy
Weybridge, Surrey, England
October 2023
Engineers and scientists from organisations such as McLaren F1, Airbus, the NHS and Haleon joined over 400 students at Brooklands Museum in October for the second Brooklands Innovation Academy.
North Star Science School
Rotherham, South Yorkshire, England
November, 2023
This year’s event involved 16 workshops, offering a diverse range of hands-on experiences. Workshops ranged from uncovering the science of chocolate and exploring thermal imaging technology to understanding why chocolate cools.
Science Summer School Northern Ireland
Activate your Curiosity
Ballymena, Northern Ireland
January, 2024
Up to 400 secondary school students were inspired to consider careers in science and engineering after attending Science Summer School Northern Ireland at The Braid Arts Centre in Ballymena in January.
It always starts with a conversation.
We work with leaders from education, business, public and private sector to develop effective and impactful future talent programmes tailored to the places and communities which matter to them.
If you are interested in finding out more, get in touch or take a look at our STEAM Future Lab brochure to learn more about our methodology.
St Paul’s Way Science Summer School, Tower Hamlets, East London
Tuesday 18 July 2023 (Virtual Event)
St Paul’s Way Trust School is where Science Summer School started in 2012. After an extremely challenging period, the school had been rebuilt as part of a major local regeneration initiative led by Lord Andrew Mawson. A new forward-thinking school leadership team placed STEAM subjects at the heart of the curriculum. Following a chance meeting in 2011 by Lord Mawson and Professor Brian Cox at the House of Lords, the idea of presenting an annual science event emerged. St Paul’s Way Trust School agreed to host the first event in 2012. The Science Summer School journey had started and continues to this day in East London while also inspiring the creation of new events around the UK.
A ‘live’ St Paul’s Way Science Summer School event took place every year between 2012-2019. The project model included leading scientists and engineers joining Professor Cox to share inspiring presentations and insights into their chosen STEAM fields with hundreds of students from St Paul’s Way and many other local schools. The school laboratories and spaces were filled with workshops and activities providing the students with practical ‘hands-on’ experience of the many potential STEAM careers. Associated projects started to take place during the school year feeding into the Science Summer School. This combined presentation and workshop model with year-round activity has helped to inform the structure and delivery of the growing national Science Summer School programme.
During the pandemic, St Paul’s Way Science Summer School adopted an extremely successful virtual event format which has continued to date although a return to a ‘live’ format is planned for 2025.
On 18 July 2023, AXA supported a programme entitled ‘ Connections’ which focussed on how science, engineering, arts and music can connect students to the world of work. Professor Cox gave an online presentation about – ‘The origin of the universe’. He was joined by the Australian composer, Amanda Lee Falkenberg to speak about her latest work ‘The Moons Symphony’ following its debut recording and release in 2022 with Marin Alsop conducting the London Symphony Orchestra and London Voices directed by Ben Parry.
Brooklands Innovation Academy, Weybridge, Surrey
Tuesday 3 October 2023
Engineers and scientists from organisations such as McLaren F1, Airbus, the NHS and Haleon joined over 400 students at Brooklands Museum on 3 October 2023 for the second Brooklands Innovation Academy. Hosted by Brooklands Museum, our first museum partnership, the event celebrated innovation, human endeavour, and entrepreneurship, all trademarks of this historic home of British motor sport and aviation and still totally relevant today and in sync with the Science Summer School ethos. The event brought together an extraordinary range of STEAM experts and highlighted the exciting career opportunities and challenges in sectors ranging from MedTech and motorsport through to aerospace and robotics.
Speakers included Professor Brian Cox with a virtual presentation entitled ‘The origin of the universe’; consultant anaesthetist Dr Josie Jones; scientist and oral health expert, Adam Sisson; the Nightingale UK: F1 in School Team with Dr Clare Morden; and Kirsty Murphy MBE, the first female Red Arrow pilot.
20 workshops included Safety Testing Components with McLaren F1 and LEGO Dragsters with McLaren Applied; Heritage Skills Academy shared information on Being an Engineering Apprentice; British Airways asked students the question So, you want to be a pilot?; National Physical Laboratory got ‘hands on’ with Launch that Rocket!; SATRO used VR headsets to explore the theme of Fighting Plastic Pollution; Ashford and St Peter’s Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust took a dive inside the human body showing that STEM Saves Lives; students designed, tested and modified paper aeroplanes in Flying Further and Faster with Airbus; Spot the Dog, Balfour Beatty’s first robotic employee, made a return visit to BIA by student demand; and Lead Sponsor Haleon presented workshops on the science behind making toothpaste, packaging design, and the world of microbiology.
Her Royal Highness, The Duchess of Edinburgh, also participated in the day. With a shared passion for inspiring young people into STEAM careers, it was an exciting opportunity to promote the work of Brooklands Innovation Academy and Brooklands Museum. The Duchess spoke to the students on the importance of STEAM careers to the UK’s future and participated in Haleon’s toothpaste workshop with Professor Cox. She also took part in the Heritage Skills Academy and addressed students from Nightingale, the F1 in Schools Team.
A Careers Fair opened by Professor Cox followed by a special evening event attended by students, their parents and project stakeholders continued the daytime theme highlighting STEM careers. Guest speaker and civil engineer, Ayo Sokale, gave an inspirational presentation.
In addition, leading up to the event on October, Brooklands Museum organised several ‘learning by doing days’ with local schools both on site and in local communities.
As a legacy of Brooklands Innovation Academy 2023, Professor Brian Cox recorded an interview during the event (included here) with Dr Josie Jones, consultant anaesthetist at Ashford & St Peter’s Hospital’s Surrey about her innovative initiative, ‘Prepare to Recover’, which is designed to reduce hospital waiting lists.
Brooklands Innovation Academy 2023 was made possible through support from Haleon, an international company based near Brooklands, whose early investment and backing helped to get the project airborne; also, grateful thanks to Bourne Education Truast and all participating schools, the NHS, NW Surrey Alliance, Ashford and St Peter’s Hospital, Surrey County Council and a range of local companies and organisations acknowledged in the programme below.
Professor Brian Cox said:
“This year’s Brooklands Innovation Academy has been even more impactful than last year. The inaugural Academy carved out a unique space where young minds delved into pressing global dilemmas. This year, the programme was magnified in scope, igniting the curiosity of an even larger cohort of future STEM leaders.
“The stories of Brooklands serve as an unparalleled backdrop for these gatherings. Its legacy is one of audacious engineering feats and a quintessentially British spirit of adventure. The trailblazers who once roamed its grounds – architects of future aviation and automotive technologies – were doers, not just deliberators. This has been a wonderful day, combining history with modern science and engineering to give students a brilliant insight into incredible STEM possibilities.”
North Star Science School, Rotherham, South Yorkshire
Wednesday 8 November 2023
Around 500 South Yorkshire pupils attended the North Star Science School held at Gulliver’s Valley in Rotherham on 8 November 2023.
Presented by the Work-Wise Foundation, this is the fourth time this event has taken place in South Yorkshire including a virtual event in 2020.
Hosted by Alex Gardner, Managing Director of Smile Business Support, Professor Brian Cox gave a keynote presentation. Other speakers at the event included Ruth Amos, former Young Engineer for Britain, entrepreneur, and STEM Ambassador, Melanie Oldham OBE, Founder of Bob’s Business and Director of Yorkshire Cyber Security Cluster, and Professor Simon Goodwin, Professor of Astrophysics at the University of Sheffield.
Lord Andrew Mawson, Chairman of Well North Enterprises, joined the event from the Cunard liner, Queen Elizabeth en route to Australia via the Starlink satellite system created by SpaceX founder Elon Musk. Lord Mawson spoke with the Captain, the Chief Engineer and other crew members about the many maritime career opportunities at sea and on shore including engineering, IT, entertainment , hospitality and marketing.
This year’s event involved 16 workshops, offering a diverse range of hands-on experiences. Workshops ranged from uncovering the science of chocolate and exploring thermal imaging technology to understanding why chocolate cools. Other workshops consisted of making sand moulds by pouring low-temperature alloys, building and controlling a hydraulic crane and learning the science and art of brickmaking.
One Teacher commented: “The hands-on workshops are really good, students are keen and engaged with opportunities they don't get in school. They really loved them.”
One business which ran a workshop said: “This event has been one of the best organised I have dealt with. The whole team are so friendly and helpful and it was a real privilege to take part”
AESSEAL, AMRC Training Centre, Amazelab, The Army, ESH Group, NHS South Yorkshire and United Cast Bar delivered business-led STEAM workshops during the event. Additional workshops, were kindly sponsored by Doncaster Council, Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council, and Sheffield City Council.
Other businesses worked in partnership with local schools in the months before the event to co-create and deliver workshops attended by students on the day including: AMETEK Land and Sheffield Girls’ High School; Barratt Developments with Brinsworth Academy; CBE+ with Newfield Secondary School; Forged Solutions Group with Don Valley Oasis Academy; CPH2 with Ridgewood School; Ibstock PLC with Wales High School; UK Atomic Energy Authority with Sheffield Park Academy; Volker Rail with The Hayfield School; and Vulcan to the Sky Trust with Doncaster UTC.
The day closed out with a special evening event attended by local business representatives featured two speakers: Kris MacKay from Well North Enterprises spoke about Growing an Innovation Platform in South Yorkshire and Julie Dalton, Managing Director, Gulliver’s Valley talked about their latest on-site project –
Skills Street – an immersive and innovative world of work and careers experience which will inspire and inform children, young people and adults from across the region.
Skills Street takes a collaborative approach working with businesses and stakeholders buying into the future of our young people and the skills needed in the jobs and careers across all current and future sectors.
SKILLS STREET is led by Gulliver’s Valley Theme, The Work-Wise Foundation and The Source Skills Academy.
Professor Cox said:
“Here in the UK we have a major shortage in scientists and engineers but how are young people expected to know what the opportunities are?
They have most likely never considered that one day they could be an astronomer, biologist or space craft engineer. There are hundreds, probably thousands of potential careers, futures they could choose, but have never heard of.
“The idea of the North Star event is to put forward science and technology career ideas to inspire young people. Also, really importantly I think, it’s an opportunity for them to make connections with people in industry, people in universities, in colleges, apprenticeships; to find out more and make useful connections for the future.”
Science Summer School NI
Activate Your Curiosity
Ballymena, Northern Ireland
Tuesday 23 January 2024
Up to 400 secondary school students were inspired to consider careers in science and engineering after attending Science Summer School Northern Ireland at The Braid Arts Centre in Ballymena on 23 January 2024. Hosted by Mid and East Antrim Borough Council, this was the second time this event has been held in Northern Ireland.
Keynote speakers included Professor Brian Cox plus a raft of other industry and academic leaders including Dr Simon Doherty, Senior Lecturer, School of Biological Sciences at Queen’s University Belfast; Dr. Erin Higgins, Astrophysicist at the Armagh Observatory & Planetarium; Richard Furey, Managing Director, Yelo Ltd;
Dr Andrew McIntosh, Head of Research and Development, Kilwaughter Minerals Ltd; Daniel Kraska, Engineering Supervisor and Ciaran Maxwell, Low Carbon and Renewable Energy Engineer, Ryobi; Vince Rosales, QUB Midwifery Graduate, Queen’s University Belfast; Fiona Simpson, Head of Commercial NI and Suzanne Leslie, Principal Partner Sales Manager, Amazon Web Services; and David Surplus, Managing Director, B9 Energy Storage.
Students were also treated to an array of ‘hands on’ workshops including ‘Science in the Cinema’ (Nerve Centre); ‘Discover Your Future in Engineering’ (The Royal Academy of Engineering in partnership with NIACE and NCC); ‘The Art of Air: Investigating Cement Renders through Touch and Feel’ (Kilwaughter Minerals Ltd); The ‘Terumo Brownie Factory’ (Terumo Blood and Cell Technologies Team); ‘Portable Planetarium – Making Sense of Space’ (Armagh Observatory and Planetarium); ‘The Brush Monster Challenge’ (Ulster University); ‘Quality in a Manufacturing Environment’ (IPC Mouldings Team); ‘Building Stability’ (Wright Bus); ‘Clue-Pho: A Workshop of Clues and Photonics!’ (Yelo); ‘Deep Racer’ (Amazon Web Services); ‘Electric Power at Your Fingertips’ (Caterpillar).
Professor Cox also led a special evening panel event – ‘One Giant Leap: Activate Your Curiosity’ - for students and their parents which highlighted the myriad of career pathways and opportunities available to the future workforce – drawing on the experiences of speakers from the business, apprentice and academic sectors.
Watch the ITV interview with Brian Cox by clicking on the image above
Alderman Geradine Mulvenna, Mayor of Mid and East Antrim Borough Council hosted an afternoon reception for local business and academic leaders attended by Professor Cox and Lord Mawson.
The event was preceded by several school engagement activities including school visits to Headline Sponsor, Kilwaughter Minerals Ltd to learn more about what makes a major manufacturing company work with a tour of the plant including an insight into product development, R&D, business development, quality assessment and quarrying.
Mid and East Antrim Borough Council also ran several competitions for students in tandem with Science Summer School Northern Ireland including ‘Sustainable Futures’, ‘Cosmic Classroom’ and ‘HORIZONS: a 21st Century Space Odyssey’ with the 2 winning students and a family member attending Professor Cox’s show at the Belfast Waterfront Theatre on January 24 during his NI tour.
Science Summer School Northern Ireland was sponsored by Kilwaughter Minerals (Headline Sponsor), Caterpiller, IPC Mouldings, Michelin, Ryobi, Terumo Blood and Cell Technologies and Yelo. GES Group, Phoenix Energy and Wright Bus were Programme Sponsors.
Making a difference matters to us
But don’t just take our word for it, here’s what past participants have said about the outcomes they’ve experienced from our Science Summer Schools
“The hands-on workshops are really good, students are keen and engaged with opportunities they don't get in school. They really loved them.”
“This event has been one of the best organised I have dealt with. The whole team are so friendly and helpful and it was a real privilege to take part”
“Forming a partnership with Ibstock through North Star has allowed students to see how the skills they learn in science are applied in a real life environment. It’s really nice to get students out on site seeing what real industry looks like and how what they learn in school will help them in the future”. Iona McLeod, Chemistry Teacher, Wales High School
“Engineering is really important at Ibstock and we’re building the young talent pipeline so we can be successful in the future. So working with schools and students local to our factories is a really important step for us to raise awareness of our business and roles we have and get people really inspired to take these subjects and come into our sector. So working with Wales is great, the students are really enthusiastic and very focused and great for our team on site to share their pride in what they do”. Emily Landsborough, Group Sustainability Adviser, Ibstock
“Collaborating with an engineering company like CBE+ provides our students with a better understanding of the world of work and the challenges of working as a team, meeting deadlines and setting achievable objectives. Our students thrive in the working environment and benefit hugely from the shared experiences and knowledge our colleagues bring to the project”. Mrs. D. Barker, Subject Leader Technology, Newfield School
“It’s been a privilege to see the young people from Newfield School engaging with our engineers, asking questions and creating a real-life based engineering project to deliver to, and inspire younger children at the North Star Science School. The school have not only incorporated an engineering theme based on a sector CBE+ supplies parts into, but have got into the business mindset of considering budget, time scales and practicalities. We are proud to have facilitated such an educational and inspiring experience through the North Star programme”. Katie Andrews, Marketing Executive, CBE+
Get in touch to find out more.