Reaching for the stars
Enriching the curriculum with family learning.
Published: 31 March 2025
Space and the wonders of our universe are perfect for capturing curiosity and encouraging young learners; for older students, the cosmos continues to provide inspiration and opportunities for future career pathways. Sharing this learning with families can offer a compelling and captivating learning experience, encouraging and supporting learners to really reach for the stars!
“Understanding space and investing in our space programme is a critical enabler for our society and economy. What happens in space is fundamentally wired to our way of life and our global connectivity – environmental monitoring, navigation, communication. Our space capabilities and physics capabilities are a must have, and engaging school children with space science is vital to growing our future work force and future capabilities.”
Professor Anu Ojha, Director of ‘Championing Space’
UK Space Agency*
Family learning
Inspired by the findings of the ASPIRES studies which show that families have a significant influence on young people’s aspirations for future STEM education and careers, Ogden partnerships have been encouraged to facilitate physics -themed family learning activities for more than a decade. Listening to stories from schools in our partnerships we have learnt about the features of effective family learning, as well as the wide range of approaches that can be adopted to engage and involve parents and carers in their child’s physics learning.
To help share some of these ideas we have collaborated with ESERO-UK to create two teacher handbooks on family learning through the context of space, one for primary and one for secondary. The handbooks introduce a wide range of approaches that can be utilised to facilitate family learning. The handbooks feature light touch, low demand activities as well as far more complex, structured approaches; they hopefully provide something for everyone and will allow teachers to select activities that work for them, their schools and their learners.
“We hope these handbooks will help schools to add family learning activities to their enrichment programme,” explains Ogden Teaching and Learning Coach, Amanda Poole. “Space is an inspirational and captivating area of physics that works brilliantly for family learning – plans and activities can be developed to coincide with National Space Week in October bringing a ‘big bang’ to learning and joining this national annual celebration of all things space.”
*this quote is taken from Professor Ojha’s presentation at the Ogden conference in 2024.