Dinah Caine speaking at the Google building

THE Town Hall has unveiled a new plan to help Camden’s schoolchildren and young people get closer to the new tech sector in King’s Cross.

Its STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, Mathematics) strategy was launched at the Google’s building on the redeveloped railwaylands on Friday.

And the aim is to open up opportunities in this “innovation district” – also home to global institutions like Google, the Francis Crick Institute and University College London –while changing the way pupils see the subjects.

In her speech, council leader Georgia Gould said: “I don’t know anywhere else globally that has this mix of academia, arts, science, engineering all in one place… but streets away we have some of the highest poverty, not just in the UK but also in Europe.”

“Young people said sometimes they felt like an island of poverty in between glass, and then for those young people who live further away from this area, the opportunities here might as well have been in Paris for how connected they felt to young people’s lives,” she said.

The council is seeking to partner local schools and colleges with businesses that can provide training, work experience and mentorship. The STEAM strategy encourages children to think in an interdisciplinary way, making use of arts and science to problem solve.

Cllr Gould said of the scheme: “It’s felt sometimes we’re like a rebel alliance, where we’re working against the national framework, the national direction of policy – a lot of this stuff doesn’t sit in the curriculum, it’s something we’re developing alongside it.”

Meanwhile, chair of the Camden STEAM Commission Dinah Caine told the audience: “Young people want to see more integration between STEAM and arts subjects. At present, they feel that the education system makes them choose between creative or technically-minded.”

Ms Caine said she would like to greater numbers of local authorities pick up the interdisciplinary model: “As we move towards that next election, we seek to encourage all policymakers to progress on this agenda, and we hope that our work here in Camden will help provide a model,” she said.

Mayor of London Sadiq Khan said: “A free education is the foundation in which economic progress and societal cohesion are achieved. “We know this to be true and yet the scope of our curriculums have been squeezed ever narrower, and by extension, hopes and ambitions of the next generation of thinkers, designers, and problem solvers too. When we allow our children to explore, discover, and create, we all benefit.”

He didn’t take any questions from the CNJ.