UWS Graduate’s National Teaching Award Success
A University of the West of Scotland (UWS) graduate has been announced as a winner in the Primary Science Teacher Awards 2021/22 celebrating and rewarding outstanding teachers in primary science.
Stuart Naismith, who graduated from the PGDE Primary programme at UWS in 2017 and a teacher at Gartcosh Primary School, will now be inducted into the Primary Science Teacher College as a PSTT College Fellow.
Commenting on the teaching award Stuart said: “I was absolutely delighted to hear that I am one of the winners of the Primary Science Teacher Award this year. It was the culmination of 5 years of hard work developing STEM education, following my inspirational time on the PGDE Primary Teacher course at UWS.
While with any teaching course, placement is where you really get to grips with what teaching involves and what type of teacher you want to be, the more practical sessions during the PGDE at UWS, such as our science and PE inputs, really gave an idea of different activities which could be run in the primary classroom, and how they could be differentiated or extended.”
Established in 2003, the Primary Science Teacher Awards celebrate current practising Primary Teachers that are doing incredible work, raising standards, excelling in tough conditions and going above and beyond. Award winners are teachers who:
- are innovative and creative in teaching science;
- inspire colleagues and contribute to developing science in their school and beyond;
- engage pupils in the excitement and fascination of science;
- support colleagues in their own and also in other schools, locally, regionally or nationally, to raise the profile of science and the quality of primary school science provision.
Stuart, who completed the BA (Hons) Commercial Music degree in 2009 before returning to UWS Ayr Campus in 2016 to undertake the Primary Teaching qualification, credits one of his lecturers at UWS with encouraging his love of STEM education.
“It was whilst I was on the PGDE Primary programme, that I became involved in different opportunities relating to STEM education through one of my lecturers.”
Stuart Naismith, PGDE (Primary) 2017
“Upon graduating as a Primary Teacher in 2017, I undertook my probation year at Greenhill Primary in Coatbridge, where I quickly established myself as a leader of STEM education, sharing ideas and practise with staff, as well as developing STEM planners across all stages of the primary school.”
However, it was during lockdown in 2020 that Stuart developed his educational YouTube channel ‘STEM with Mr N’ firstly to provide STEM education to the pupils in his school, and then sharing the resource more widely with staff in other schools.
Now, over 2 years later, he continues to produce educational content for the channel for his 700 subscribers and 7,294 followers on Facebook. ‘STEM with Mr N’ is a mixture of experiment and explanation videos, robotics and coding, and STEM career interviews to bring insight to children and young people about the diversity of careers, people and paths within STEM. Notable interviewees include Dame Prof. Sue Black (forensic anthropologist) and Prof. Steve Brusatte (palaeontologist and advisor on Jurassic World: Dominion). Stuart has also partnered with organisations such as the Institution for Engineering and Technology, Robocube, Robotical and Connected Baby.
In this past academic year Stuart moved to Gartcosh Primary, bringing his STEM skills and experience from his previous school aiming to have an impact in his new school, when he was nominated for the UK-wide Primary Science Teaching Award. At the start of 2022, he was shortlisted by the awards panel, observed during a 1-hour science lesson and interviewed about his work at the school and his whole STEM journey, both in and out of school.
Stuart has no plans to slow down following this achievement, having already lined up some exciting interviewees for the next academic session, creating a new series for his channel while continuing with experiments and robotics, developing relationships within Education Scotland and Developing the Young Workforce teams to further promote STEM education and careers, and working with the PSTT College to further STEM education in Scotland, while still working to lead and promote STEM within his school and wider community.
View Stuart’s YouTube channel here: https://youtube.com/c/STEMwithMrN
Follow his Facebook page here: https://www.facebook.com/stemwithmrn
