Dear Parents, Guardians and Friends
Can you design and build a structure to protect 3 digestive biscuits from the force of a weight dropped from a height out of only paper and glue?
That was the design challenge set for our Year 8 students on Technology Day on Monday. They worked in small groups to design, create and test their structure. The atmosphere in the hall and the technology block was very focused and industrious as the students worked together to come up with ideas and build structures whilst also not being tempted to eat the biscuits (which was an important rule!).
There was mixed success with the testing – some collapsed immediately but others held out for heavier weights – the winners were Lacemakers – Daisy, Skye, Georgina, Isla and Maya with a weight of 750g! Well done and thank you to Miss Hurry and the technology department for organising and running the day.
Technology was a focus of the recent assembly I presented along with Holly and Mirella from the Climate Change Task Force. It is likely that as the segment of the economy that produces goods and services with environmental benefits develops many millions of green jobs will be available in the future. There will be a need for people leaving education to do things differently, to come up with new ideas for products and technologies and to explore new conservation methods. These opportunities are exciting, and it is great that the Year 8s were able to start developing their own design skills.
Mrs Hart our careers lead works hard to ensure that all our students are aware of the great variety of jobs and careers available. For example, both Year 8 and Year 10 attended a ‘Career Kick Start’ event in the Autumn term, Year 8 listened to the Chief Marketing Officer of the Small Robot Company and Year 10 heard from Tepeo and Ordo Pay, both technology companies.
Students have had the opportunity to hear from speakers about careers in interior design, marketing and at Microsoft. The science department have continued to host talks, often from ex-students who now work in STEM industries.
Next week it is National Apprenticeship Week 7th – 11th February and Mrs Hart has organised a full week of different lunchtime speakers in school so that students can find out how apprenticeships and work experience can accelerate careers in law, banking and finance, and technology. A Letter has been sent out to parents regarding the webinar events for that week.
A similar week of events will be organised for National Careers week 7th-11th March. This will be followed by our second Careers and University Fair on Friday 1st April 2022 and being reinstated once again is work experience for Year 10 and Year 12 in the summer term. Which offers such an amazing opportunity for students to experience a real workplace!
Please do encourage your daughter/son to keep an eye out for all of these opportunities and events, it is a shame when a visiting speaker has a very small audience when they have so much valuable experience and information to share.
One such opportunity is the computing departments latest House competition; the BAFTA Young Game Designers is an initiative by BAFTA that inspires and supports young people to create, develop and present their new game idea to the world. There are more details on daily briefing.
As Mrs Hart explains we are keen to show our students that working in the technology sector does not have to be only about coding. The future of work is evolving at a rapid pace, so we want to be able to showcase potential career paths and opportunities for your daughter/son to learn about. There are so many jobs and careers that we just do not know about!
In the future, our students may well be applying for jobs that don’t even exist yet!
Yvonne Smith
Assistant Headteacher