Technology Events in March

Scrapheap Challenge 2010

In March we will be sending a team of engineers to compete against other schools in the City in the JaguarLandrover / IMechE Scrapheap Challenge. Each team has been provided with a number of items of scrap and teams will have to design vehicle to go 'bowling'. You'll then build it and finally compete against the other teams, trying to knock over the most skittles. Good Luck to the Team!

Connex Challenge

At the end of the month Yr 4 pupils from some of our feeder primary schools will be coming into school to undertake the Connex Challenge. The challenge requires the pupils to work in pairs and involves them in building a design solution to a problem that has been set by Young Engineers. The challenge encourages the pupils to develop and demonstrate their problem solving skills, their imagination, creativity and ingenuity as well as early project management skills. The pupils start the challenge by drawing their ideas first and then building their solution, adapting their initial designs as they learn what works and what doesn't. The Junior Engineer for Britain K'NEX Challenge has a long and established history with over 53,000 pupils taking part in 2009. A UK National Final will be held in June 2010 and it is expected that over 30 teams will be invited to attend. The selection process from an in school challenge to national final will involve a combination of methods including judging in school to county finals. The Westwood will be funding this project on behalf of the primary schools. Good luck to all of our budding designers!

One of the Top 7 Technology schools in the West Midlands - more success in the latest DCSF tables

For the last 3 years the school has been benchmarking its success as a Technology College against other Technology Colleges in the West Midlands. Comparing our success with 30 other Technology schools from Solihull, Birmingham, Warwickshire, Leicestershire and Coventry we have made year on year improvements in our ranking against these schools. We are now the 7th in the table (8th 2008, 16th 2007). Congratulations to pupils, parents, staff and governors.

Level 3 Engineering with Careers Academy - Keeping Pace with the Technology Revolution

The school has been a successful Technology College since 2004 and is now about to enter its second phase of designation.

Pupils in KS4 already follow an innovative curriculum which includes Design and Technology for all as well as high performing Maths, ICT and Science courses. Performance in these subjects is so good that the school is now undertaking a year of planning to develop a suite of specialist subject courses for delivery in September 2010. These subjects will reflect the niche Technology status of the school and in some cases are unique to the school or this part of the City.

Over the next 12 months some exciting new curriculum opportunities will be developed for delivery post 16. The BTEC Applied Science course could open students up to careers in Forensics or Higher Education science courses; a Level 3 Engineering Diploma is being supported by the London based Careers Academy and students will have access to paid internships, guru lecturers and mentors from local and UK flagship engineering companies such as Jaguar; AS/A2 level Science in Society will allow students to consider contemporary issues in science today and the communication skills that can be developed will appeal to scientists and non-scientists seeking careers in the media and law; a CISCO computer networking qualification is aimed at helping to plug the gap in the job market for network managers and as an internationally recognised qualification that surely will up horizons to Coventry's young people. These courses are open to students across the SW Federation and places will be limited. If you would like more information on post 16 courses that will help you keep pace with the Technology revolution then please contact Mrs Sally Hodge (Director - Post 16).