Posted 15 July 2024

The Office for Students (OfS) is clear in its messaging, encouraging universities to work in partnership with schools, partner Higher Education providers and third sector organisations to meet the commitments in their Access and Participation Plans and fulfil their civic and moral duties. John Blake, Director for Fair Access and Participation at the OfS Third Sector Forum event in January stated that “such partnerships should be at the forefront of planning for mitigating risks to equality of opportunity.”

As part of our work to raise attainment and increase the number of female students choosing courses in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics), we embarked on a partnership with the National Centre for Computing Education and STEM Learning to host the I Belong event on 27 June.  

The aim of the I Belong programme is to offer strategies and initiatives to encourage more girls into computer sciences in England. Through enhancement activities and curriculum resources it sets out to ensure that all learners feel a sense of belonging in STEM subjects and career pathways they may not have considered before.  

Despite the growing popularity of Computer Science, which is the fastest-growing STEM subject, girls are consistently outnumbered by boys. In 2023, only one in five GCSE Computer Science and 15% of all A-Level Computer Science entries were from female students.  

STEM Learning’s CEO Séverine Trouillet, recently said: “The I Belong campaign is critical to help build an inclusive subject where girls feel they belong and can succeed. If girls feel they belong in tech, everybody benefits.” 

The I belong project brought together four participating schools, each comprising teams of Year 8 girls who, during after school clubs, worked on a project to design and programme robots using Micro:bit technology. The robots were put to the test at the event hosted at Leeds Beckett University in June with teams judged on the speed and accuracy of their robots in a series of pre-planned tasks. They were also marked on how the girls worked together as a team and came up with innovative and creative solutions to problems. Pupils enjoyed the competitions and gained great satisfaction when their robots succeeded in navigating the required challenges. 

The event was an example of an impactful and effective partnerships between universities, schools and third sector organisations. The National Centre for Computing Education and STEM Learning were central to engaging the schools and providing the appropriate curriculum resources and technology to test and challenge the pupils. The schools were key to coaching the pupils through the project and ensuring they had the knowledge and skills required to complete the challenge, and Leeds Beckett was able to host the event in an inspiring venue, with pupils able to view the facilities available to students studying computing and engineering.

The presence of our female STEM ambassadors and our academic staff was one of the most successful parts of the day, the interactions aligned well with the overall aim of the I belong programme, to foster inclusion for females in STEM subjects which, it is hoped, will be the start many successful careers in tech.  

 

Sarah Thomas, Access and Widening Participation Manager, Leeds Beckett University