GIRLS at a school in Headington swapped seminars for a space project this week in order to put on a creative arts day.

Headington Preparatory School ran the event on Tuesday as part of an ongoing mission to encourage girls to get involved in science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM subjects).

The day's activities were all on the theme of space and saw students take part in dance, poetry, creative writing, drama and music in addition to creating their very own animation sets and films.

Arts and design technology teacher Rebecca Klico led the animation session and said she was very proud of the finished results.

She said: "Every class got involved in the day and did lots of different activities, with our year six classes doing stop frame animation.

"They created their very own space themed sets, so we had all types of toys going up into space including Lego and Sylvanian families.

"It took about an hour and a half for them to make the sets and then an hour and a half to film it and they all did fantastically because they made it all themselves."

Ms Klico added that she thought the day was a fantastic opportunity to expose the girls to the wonderful world of STEM.

She said: "We launched our STEM focus at the beginning of this year and I think it's so important that the girls are exposed to all aspects of those subjects.

"My background is in architecture so to me it is very important that the girls learn as much as they can within this area."

One of the students involved in the project – Amelia Lecane, 10, from Wheatley – agreed with her teacher and said she thought it was important girls learnt about STEM.

She said: "I really enjoyed all of it and I thought the whole thing was really fun.

"My favourite bit was the animation, which I did a bit before in Year five.

"I think it's very important that we all learn about science, technology, engineering and maths."

Sophia Brehm, 11, from Wheatley, said she was very interested by the chosen topic and thought the day was really fun.

She said: "It was really good and I really enjoyed it.

"I'm pleased with our project because I like learning about space."

Phoebe Potter, 10, from Thame said she thought the team aspect of the task was enjoyable.

She said: "It was fun to work together and make the box, I really enjoyed it."