Our collective future depends on scientific advances in all areas of our lives - healthcare, food and water security, energy, transport, AI, global finance systems and more. A robust STEM education is becoming more and more important to our economy with employment in STEM occupations projected to grow in the coming years. Academic disciplines must collaborate and integrate to enhance our student's creativity, problem solving skills, critical thinking, experimentation and resilience.

In universities patterns for enrolment in STEM courses is changing. There has been a huge increase in women studying computer science in the space of a decade. According to UCAS figures there were 25,275 applications from women in 2021, up a colossal 103% from 12.475 in 2012. Engineering applications also rose at a substantial rate, by 70% to to 31,910. Each year there are now 20,000 applications from women to study mathematical sciences too. 

Whatever their future academic and career paths, our girls will need scientific literacy and imagination to become creative problem-solvers and critical thinkers. We want to provide both our students and their outstanding teacher with an environment which matches their aspirations. 

Our science and technology, maths and computing curricula are strong and our girls are taught by  exemplary teachers with a range of backgrounds and experiences. But we currently can't provide the space, facilities and infrastructure to which we aspire. Our Science site was built in the 1960s for a school which was half the size it is today. The arrangement of the labs is fragmented which limits collaborative working and the exchange of ideas - both things which encourage the creative synergy that is vital to scientific discovery. We need a well designed, adaptable learning environment to support modern reaching and mirror the environment in which those girls who go on to further scientific education and beyond will find themselves.

Participation and results in STEM subjects are consistently high. Over 65% of our girls study three separate sciences at  IGCSE, 58% study Maths at A Level and 51% a Science subject. In 2023 girls went on to study Physics at Exeter, Engineering at Durham, Pharmacy at Bath, Evoluntionary Biology at St Andrews and Animal Science at Reading. Both our students and teachers deserve first-rate facilities to match the level of success that they are achieving.  48% of our girls in 2024 are applying for STEM degrees at University - this excludes the social sciences.

If you consider any of the big problems facing us at the moment - be it pollution of the land or sea, global warming or the emergence of superbugs, and I can think of so many more - these can only be solved by Science.

Let’s look at the jobs of the future – everybody is talking about Artificial Intelligence these days or big data. Some people are beginning to talk about cognitive neuroscience. We can’t even imagine the jobs our children will have, but what we cansay for sure is that they will require scientific grounding. I am not saying that everyone will be a scientist. Even classic jobs like marketing, that have usually been associated with intuition or experience, are fast changing due to the prevalence of big data. I feel, very strongly, that in a world that is becoming ever more scientific, a firm grounding in these subjects will make our children far better equipped to compete successfully.

So why are girls under-represented in all this excitement? Actually at St Cat’s we do buck the trend. We do have a lot of girls opting for Maths and the Sciences. But I feel that now is the time to invest more in these subjects. Everywhere that we have invested in school – whether it is the amazing musical facilities or the sports facilities - we have seen huge returns in terms of participation, excitement and success. Now it is time for the same to happen to Science and Technology. If we want to inspire the girls, we need inspirational spaces. We need spaces where the sciences come together with Maths and Technology; spaces where interesting displays arouse curiosity and discussion, and nurture the scientists and innovators of the future. I believe that there is headroom for a girls' school that is distinctive in Science and Technology and I believe that can be us.

When I chose to study Physics at university, it was only because it was a subject I really enjoyed at school. If I were going around again, I’d make exactly the same choice, because Physics and the rest of the Sciences are going to lead the big developments of the future. They will shape our lives and we owe it to our children to ensure that they are fully geared up for it.

Dr Kathleen Puech, BSc, PhD Dublin, PGCE - Head of Physics