Education Scotland is delighted to announce that Rosebank Primary School has become the first primary school in Dundee and the 50th education setting in Scotland to achieve the STEM Nation Award. The prestigious award for sciences, technologies, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education celebrates, promotes and builds on effective STEM practice across Scotland.

Education Scotland’s STEM Nation Award is the cornerstone of the Scottish Government’s STEM Education and Training Strategy for Scotland. The Government strategy sets out a vision of Scotland as a world-leading STEM nation with a highly-educated and skilled population equipped with the skills, knowledge and capability required to adapt and thrive in a rapidly-changing world. STEM skills are crucial as Scotland seeks to transition to net-zero and as the demand for STEM skills grows to support our key economic sectors including: green economy, energy, space, advanced manufacturing, engineering, life and chemical sciences, food and drink and creative and digital media.

In order to achieve the full STEM Nation Award settings must gather and submit evidence demonstrating leadership, family and community learning, employability and partnership working, curriculum and learner pathways, and equity and equality. After achieving all five elements settings upload their STEM action plan for review by Education Scotland and a discussion is then held to explore this in more depth.

Rosebank Primary School was praised for their strong leadership approach to planning and delivering positive STEM learning experiences that increase STEM capital for learners and their families. Staff have created and resourced nurturing STEM spaces within the school where creativity and curiosity is encouraged. Validators identified family learning and the school’s approach to promoting equity and equality in STEM as particular strengths of their submission. This included children and parents learning about online safety as part of the 15-week 'Best Foot Forward Programme' and families engaging with 'The Rosebank Passport' programme which encourages families to get involved with STEM learning opportunities at home and in the local community.

Rosebank Primary School has also developed strong links with a wide range of partners which has enriched the learning experiences on offer and supported the professional learning of staff. One local partnership, with the charity NeON Digital Arts has encouraged pupils to think about sustainability and ‘e-waste’, whilst another international partnership with Hinta School in Helsinki, Finland emerged as a result of a collaboration between Rosebank Primary School and V&A Dundee.

Staff and pupils at the school recently welcomed educators and STEM industry partners from across Scotland to a STEM Nation Award Open Day hosted in partnership with Education Scotland. As part of the event, visitors were taken on a tour of the school to see the STEM environments that have been created for the children, had the opportunity to observe the exciting and innovative work being undertaken by staff and pupils and also participate in a marketplace event with the school’s STEM partners. Not only do staff at Rosebank Primary School have a clear vision for their future with STEM but their enthusiasm and commitment is helping to raise the profile of STEM education across the region and support other educators and schools in the process.

Children, Families and Communities Convener Stewart Hunter said: “I’m delighted that Rosebank Primary has become the 50th setting in Scotland to receive this prestigious STEM Nation Award. I know the entire school community have worked hard to embed STEM practises into their curriculum.

“Rosebank Primary School is the third educational setting in Dundee to receive this award. This means that Dundee City Council is now one of only two local authorities in Scotland to have STEM Nation Award winners across the early learning and childcare, primary and secondary school sectors. This achievement highlights the city’s commitment to supporting our young learners in developing a wide range of skills, including creativity, problem solving, and logical thinking through STEM learning.”

Gillian Hamilton, Chief Executive of Education Scotland, said: “Congratulations to Rosebank Primary School on becoming the 50th education setting in Scotland to achieve the STEM Nation Award. Rosebank is the first primary school in Dundee to achieve this and the staff have shown great enthusiasm for STEM and how it can complement learning across a wide range of curriculum areas. This is vital for pupils’ future lives and work as STEM skills are used in many different jobs from cooking to commerce, finance to farming and much more. We hope this success will encourage even more of Scotland’s schools and settings to apply for the STEM Nation Award.”

Education Secretary Jenny Gilruth said:

“Congratulations to Rosebank Primary School on becoming the 50th setting to receive this award. It is clear that the school has put in an immense amount of work to inspire the next generation into the world of STEM.

“STEM education is vital to Scotland’s future economic growth and prosperity. Key to this is ensuring that a collective effort is taken at school-level to allow young people to develop core STEM skills, with the STEM Nation Award supporting this goal.”

Rosebank Primary School’s recent success builds on the earlier achievements of Baldragon Academy and Caird View Nursery who were the first secondary school and early learning and childcare setting respectively to achieve the STEM Nation Award within Dundee City Council.

STEM Nation Award validators highlighted the positive impact of Baldragon Academy’s STEM partnerships with local universities and STEM industries. These sustained partnerships are helping to widen access to higher education programmes and are providing learners opportunities to gain industry-based qualifications. At Caird View Nursery, the staff themselves were supported on a professional learning journey through an innovative partnership with Dundee Science Centre which involved a science communicator working in the nursery over an extended period to support science and STEM based learning opportunities. Additionally, this provided invaluable feedback for staff at the science centre who were able to review their early years programme to best suit the needs of their youngest visitors.

The STEM Nation Award programme is currently open to applications from early learning and childcare settings, primary and secondary schools and community learning and development providers. More information on the STEM Nation Award including details on how to apply for it can be found via Education Scotland’s STEM Nation blog.