STEM Day Success at St John’s!

Last week, to celebrate British Science Week, St John’s School held an exciting STEM Day filled with hands-on learning and creative problem-solving! Our house event focused on boats—exploring concepts of floating, sinking, and partial submerging. Across the school, children investigated buoyancy and water distribution, experimenting with different shapes to determine which were the most effective for floating.

In Early Years and KS1, children made predictions about everyday objects, testing whether they would float or sink. They also experimented with Play-Doh, shaping it in ways that allowed it to float—a fantastic way to introduce scientific thinking through play.

For our final big challenge, children from Years 1 to 6 worked in house teams to design and build a tinfoil boat capable of holding as many pennies as possible. We were incredibly impressed by the children’s teamwork, ingenuity, and problem-solving skills—especially as they tested and refined their designs to improve their results.

The day was a great success, and we are thrilled to announce that the top-performing teams earned a place in the finals! These students were invited to the University of Bristol to take part in a STEM celebration, where they joined other schools from the NW24 network. There, they had the incredible opportunity to meet a lead engineer from Rolls-Royce, learning about boat and aeroplane engine design, before taking part in a fascinating aeroplane engineering task.

A huge well done to all the children who participated! We are so proud of their enthusiasm and problem-solving skills, and we can’t wait to see some future scientists and engineers from St John’s School!

Year 1&2 Winning House: Morpurgo

Georgia, Aiden, Ella

Year 3&4 Winning House: Morpurgo with 277 pennies

Luna, Deia, Lowen and Megan F

Year 5&6: Winning House:  Lewis with 234 pennies

Jacob H, Gabby, Mohammed

Special mentions to the following children who showed excellent determination at ‘Changing and Adapting’ who were also invited to The University of Bristol for our STEM celebration: Yassin, Charlie and Finn.