A small Lake District business is investing in a STEM educational programme to support pupil learning and promote closer relationships between industry and schools.
Since June 2019 around 120 students from four Cumbrian schools have taken part in hands-on activities to get a taste of what life is like in the mining industry, both now and in the past. This is thanks to the educational relationship being forged between Honister Slate Mine, the last working mine of its kind in England, Primary Business Partnership and local primary school teachers.
To complement these aspiration sessions the education team at Honister Slate Mine have developed a flexible set of STEM learning resources for KS1-KS2 focussing on three key topic areas; social history and industry ‘Where did Moses Rigg tread and why?’, economics with past, present and future entrepreneurs in ‘Mountains, Miners and Mark’ and a geography and geology focus in ‘Metamorphic Sandwich Filling’. These can be delivered in workshop sessions in the schools, or at the mine in Borrowdale combined with a guided mine tour.
Jan Wilkinson Co-Owner Honister Slate Mine says, ‘Working with local schools more closely is something we’ve been keen to do for a long time. We’ve invested time into creating this new set of learning resources to help support teachers in the classroom and on trips to the mine. By providing real industry role models we aim to give these young people insights into what a future career might be, but also to support the curriculum learning goals in geology, geography, history and society.’
So far students from Borrowdale, Paddle Eaglesfield, Dearham, Gosforth primary schools have benefited from these engaging sessions led by Tori Jones from Honister. Future sessions will be taking place with Bothel and Plumbland schools. There are spaces still available in December, teachers can contact the learning team at Honister or Primary Business Partnerships to find out more.
