Working with the National Space Centre in Leicester and with additional financial backing from the Premier League Charitable Fund, LCitC and PSTT have embarked on an ambitious programme of support for primary science teaching in Leicester. PSTT College Fellow, Sarah Eames, initially developed a series of lesson plans linking football and space and trialled these materials in local schools, with the ultimate aim of creating a resource that can be shared with other teachers. PSTT further supported LCitC’s appointment of a science communicator and STEM coach, Dr Alex Evans, to disseminate and refine the programme within additional schools in Leicester and to develop additional resources. Working together on these materials, Sarah and Alex have created a collection of resources that are now available for use in primary schools with a target audience of upper key stage 2 (9-11 year olds). The resources were created to enable ‘non-teachers’ to support children in primary science; we would not expect experienced teachers to follow the detailed plans but to adapt the ideas to their own needs and circumstances.
The children involved have enjoyed the focus on their local Leicester City Football Club and National Space Centre (both were visited during the programme) and whilst these are not part of the lesson resources created, schools across the UK could utilise their local facilities to bring the sessions (called ‘fixtures’) further to life.
