By Julia Rocher, Teacher of Science at Caxton College in Valencia

STEM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Maths. These subjects are important because they help us solve problems, understand the world, and create new things that make life better. From building bridges to designing apps, STEM is everywhere, and in today’s world, jobs in these fields are growing fast.

This is why at Caxton College we encourage all students—especially girls—to explore STEM and provide them with challenges that allow them to develop their STEM skills, such as the Sener Challenge and Faraday Challenge, where they are tasked with coming up with engineering solutions for a specific problem that has been presented to them. They also have the opportunity to compete in the UKMT Challenges, Physics and Chemistry Olympiads and Biology UK Challenge. Last year we also introduced Experimenta, a physics and technology contest organized by the University of Valencia, where students present their projects to physics experts. Additionally, the school also offers lunch activities such as Robotics and CREST club.

Thanks to these initiatives, we give students the space to build, ask questions, experiment, and be curious. At Caxton College, 52% of STEM teachers are female! We give our female students the confidence to choose optional subjects in this area at A Level or for entrance to Spanish university. And during the last several years we have seen that more and more of our female Sixth Form students are going on to study degrees in these fields: in 2024-25, 50% of girls in the graduating cohort went on to STEM degree programmes at university.

When girls choose this path, everyone benefits, since people with different backgrounds can look at a problem in new ways and find better solutions. Let’s work to show every child, especially our girls, that they belong in STEM—and that their ideas can change the world!