EDUCAT ION
IT MEANS YOU CAN DRAW ON DIFFERENT AREAS OF LEARNING
She believes in forging connections, finding solutions to human problems through a greater understanding of cultural traditions. It’s now completely natural for St Faith’s pupils to transfer a way of learning, working or thinking from one subject to another. “It means you can draw on different areas of learning, look at new perspectives, ask more questions, and that the innovations coming through are more lasting and meaningful,” she says. When it comes to the activities themselves, there’s been a careful nurturing of talent that has seen pupils go way beyond the curriculum – wowing not just their own school communities with a dizzying array of originality, but winning accolades from the outside world, too.
binary choice between science and the arts. Instead, the emphasis is on inspiration, letting children experience the way that, as Gresham’s puts it, “knowledge gained from one discipline can be used in a creative way in another” – and encouraging pupils to exchange ideas, work collaboratively and take their learning beyond the curriculum. This way of thinking is very familiar to staff at St Faith’s. In 2018, the school opened its STEAM hub, connecting the engineering, science, maths, computing and arts departments. It was to make both philosophical and physical connections, explains Laura Davies. “STEAM is all about people in terms of creativity, desires and needs, and I think this is where the ‘A’ comes in,” she says.
CAMBSEDITION.CO.UK SEPTEMBER 2021 79
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