Schools engagement

Being educated in science and mathematics enables young people to make informed choices about their work and life and equips them to prosper in today’s rapidly-changing, knowledge-focused economies. The Society advocates for an excellent education system for all through its policy programme. 

Our Schools Engagement team work to support this by providing resources and opportunities to support teachers across the UK teaching students aged 5 – 18 years. All resources are available for schools and colleges. The Society’s flagship programme for schools is the Partnership Grants scheme. This funding scheme provides schools with a grant of up to £3,000 for young people and their teachers to work in partnership with a qualified STEM researcher from academia or industry to carry out a research project. Through the partnership students develop key practical skills, gain first-hand knowledge of career opportunities, and experience the excitement that comes from carrying out their own investigations, often addressing local challenges. The scheme allows young people to interact with world-class scientists across multiple disciplines and learn that everyone, irrespective of background, can benefit from, and contribute to, scientific progress. 

Tomorrow’s Climate Scientists is an extension to the Partnership Grants scheme and funds those schools specifically researching into climate change and biodiversity loss. It aims to give students across the UK not just a voice, but an opportunity to take action themselves to address climate and biodiversity issues – to become the climate scientists of tomorrow.  

Schools funded through the Society are provided with opportunities to showcase and share their work through events such as the Royal Society’s Student Conference and Young Researcher Zone at the Summer Science Exhibition. These events give students the chance to engage peers, Fellows and members of the public with their research. As well as events for funded schools, the team offer bookings for schools to visit the Summer Science Exhibition to see the cutting-edge research being undertaken across the UK.  

The Society also support teachers through free evidence-based resources covering a wide range of topics. Featured resources include The Brian Cox School Experiments which aim to support teachers, especially non-specialist STEM teachers, to embed practical learning into the curriculum. Series two of the resources explore new and emerging technologies from genetic technologies to machine learning and cybersecurity. Our Why Science resources are short animations demonstrating the relevance of science to the curriculum and the wealth of opportunities studying science can lead to. 

Another set of resources link to the shortlisted books from the Young People’s Book Prize. This annual prize aims to promote literacy in young people and inspire students to read about science. Schools can apply to run a student judging panel and receive free copies of the six shortlisted science books for under-14s. The winning book is selected by the thousands of student judges from across the country.  

The Schools Engagement team work closely with teams across the Society and help to share their work with schools and partner organisations across the UK.