NEWS: The School Gate SET is evolving

Thanks to our Ingenious funding, we are now working more closely with Jan Peters and Karen Dickens. Jan founded the Science Sisters project, which helped to inspire the School Gate SET, and Karen was one of the original members. They are both passionate about science and technology communication.

Jan and Karen will be helping to develop and deliver our confidence-building and training workshops for career-break parent volunteers. The workshops will be held in and around Hertfordshire and Dorset during the next academic year.

In the coming weeks, we will also be hosting a series of webinars, discussing the School Gate SET project and answering questions about how you can get involved. The schedule, so far, is:

Wed 29th June at 9:30am: Kate Bellingham talks to Jan Peters 
‘Beyond ‘listening to readers' - how I helped support STEM at my children’s school’
VIEW HERE

Wed 6th July at 10am: Kate Bellingham, Jan Peters, Karen Dickens, Helen Roberts
'The School Gate SET FAQ'
VIEW HERE

If you can't join in, live, recordings will be available afterwards on the Facebook page and blog. 

Please sign up to our mailing list to receive updates about the webinar series and all our other news.

Press Release: Engineer? Technician? Parent? The School Gate SET wants you!

We're pleased to share our press release for the Royal Academy of Engineering Ingenious funded project.

Please view, download, share and generally spread the word.  The focus for this project is on engineers, technologists and technicians based in the South Coast region or in Hertfordshire - but we are still keen to hear from parents with interest in all STEM fields and in all areas of the UK as we grow the network.

ANNOUNCEMENT: Royal Academy of Engineering "Ingenious" Award.

We are very excited to announce that The School Gate SET has been awarded an RAE "Ingenious" grant! This awards scheme supports innovative projects that engage the public with engineers and engineering.

awards scheme for projects that engage the public with engineers and engineering - See more at: http://www.raeng.org.uk/grants-and-prizes/ingenious-grant#sthash.6Bta37Yo.dpuf

Over the next three months we will be recruiting 40 career-break engineers, technologists and technicians whose children are in primary school. As well as the existing School Gate SET activities: building a relationship with their children's school and supporting the STEM curriculum; these parent volunteers will be invited to register as STEM ambassadors and to attend specially designed training workshops.

These free workshops will be held in participating schools in Autumn 2016, during the school day. They have been developed by project co-ordinator, Kate Bellingham and certified Gallup Strengths Coach, Jan Peters, both long-time champions for women's participation in science and technology. The agenda will include:

• ice breakers & experience sharing
• strengths awareness
• introduction to a technical hands-on activity along with advice on how to deliver this to pupils with different learning styles/backgrounds.

Participating parents will also be encouraged to (re)connect with professional organisations, such as the Women's Engineering Society (WES), The IET or The IMechE, who can suggest opportunities to resume their career in a way that fits in with family life.

To minimise travel costs, these workshops will initially be running in Hertfordshire and Dorset, but we want the School Gate SET to keep growing, nationwide, and will continue to provide online support, activity ideas and mentoring.