Year 5 girls from Bransgore Primary, from left to right Ellie-May Springall, Dulcie Parr and Amelie Robertson, get an insight into secondary education at The Arnewood School’s STEAM Day.
From political debating to a virtual lesson in outer space, primary school children from across the New Forest were given a fun day’s introduction to the world of secondary education.
The youngsters were attending the annual STEAM Day (science, technology, engineering, arts and maths) hosted by The Arnewood School in New Milton.
More than 300 Year 5 students from New Milton Juniors, Bransgore Primary, St Lukes Primary, Hordle Primary and Ashley Junior were treated to a day of hands-on activities and lectures from guest speakers.
Guests included Arts University Bournemouth, Coda Music, Parliament Outreach, Creative Dance, New Forest Centre, Southern Water, the RNLI and the Institution of Physics.
Southampton University also brought along its very own astrodome – one of the South’s most mobile planetariums that digitally immerses people into outer space.
Another highlight of the day was medieval barber surgeon McCreadie and his scientific horrors of yesteryear.
Headteacher of The Arnewood School, Nigel Pressnell, said: “This year’s STEAM day was a fantastic success and it was wonderful to welcome so many primary children to our school.
“With the help of our special guests we organised a packed day of interactive workshops to show younger children just what fun learning the core subjects at secondary school can be.”
During the day the children also developed debating skills with the Parliament Outreach centre and took part in a wide-range of fun activities revolving around maths, English, science, ICT, drama, PE, music and humanities.
And this year parents of the Year 5 children were also invited to come along and see what life is like at Arnewood.
One parent was so impressed with what she had seen that she wrote to the school:
“What a brilliant idea to give the children taster sessions throughout the day so that they get a feel for the school.
“I went along to the afternoon session for parents and was very impressed with what I saw. The spread of topics and activities was impressive with some really good hands-on experiments and it was very helpful to get an insight into The Arnewood School which I had never visited before.
“The students we met around the school were polite and well behaved and looked very smart in their uniforms.”
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