In October 2022, the BMS Technology Faculty launched the first IT STEM club which will run every Friday lunch time in room F4. The club opens to all Year groups and no skills or knowledge are required, students can just come and enjoy themselves to learn any ICT and Computing skills. The following skills are available for students to explore and learn:

· To create animation or games using Scratch;

· To edit photos using Photoshop;

· To make websites using Google Site;

· To create programs using block code methods with microbit;

· To create programs using Python with microbit.

Two Yr12 students were quite intrigued with the microbit that they borrowed it home to learn to code with microbit. Three Yr7 students took interests in programming using microbit after being shown what it can do; on last Enrichment Day. They immediately came to the IT STEM club on the same day. Deo Snowden was very proud that he made his first microbit project, a beating heart! This week, I am looking forward to see these three Yr7s return to the club plus bringing their friends with them.

Looking into the future, we are hoping to organise educational trips that enable students to learn ICT in an enjoyable way.

CyberFirst Competition 2023

I am glad that in IT STEM, we are encouraging the Yr8 girls to partake in the CyberFirst Competition 2023 run by NCSC (National Cyber Security Centre). This is a government’s initiative to encourage more girls to consider Computer Science as an option at school and a career in cyber security.

We have promoted the event and are now waiting for the Yr8 girls’ reply.