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Back to School – Academy Trusts at forefront of zero carbon action for UK schools
Academy Trusts up and down the country are proving to be a formative part of the UK education sector’s response to climate change, says Let’s Go Zero, the nationwide school campaign which supports schools to be zero carbon by 2030. Schools from 389...
WATFORD REVEALED TO HAVE THE BIGGEST TEACHER SHORTAGES IN ENGLAND – AS THE SOUTH BEARS THE BRUNT OF THE CRISIS
As the teacher vacancies crisis roars on, Watford has been found to be the location with the biggest teacher shortages, according to new data. The research, collated by education software specialist, The Access Group, analysed...
DISTRESS, DISCOMFORT AND DISRUPTION: IT’S TIME TO SCRAP SCHOOL UNIFORMS
Rare Birds is calling for school uniform policies to be relaxed to allow the neurodivergent to concentrate on their education 47% of students find school uniforms uncomfortable to wear Parents of children who are neurodivergent spend twice as...
TEACHER DEBT 20% ABOVE NATIONAL AVERAGE
The average debt levels of teachers across the UK currently stands at £19,800. The current national average is £16,500. This comes at a time when the sector is facing significant staff turnover with 40,000 working-age teachers having quit state...
A Class Act: Joe Wicks’ The Body Coach App Offers Free Access to Teachers
Three-month initiative aims to support health and wellbeing of the nation’s teachers Affectionately known as the nation’s PE teacher, Joe Wicks has played a huge part in inspiring the next generation to embrace physical fitness. Now, he’s turning his...
SIX students gave up time in their summer holidays to take part in an engineering sustainability challenge which has inspired them to pursue future employment opportunities. The aspiring engineers, all from West Cumbria and either at college or having just sat GCSEs, spent eight days on a project looking at ways of reducing carbon emissions at Sellafield Ltd’s Engineering Centre of Excellence at Cleator Moor. The summer sprint project was the first of its kind and was set up by Lorna Devine, Sellafield’s Engineering Development Solutions Lead, in collaboration with Lakes College and the Centre for Leadership Performance. For the project the students were given a £250,000 budget and asked to recommend the most effective ways to lower carbon emissions at the Engineering Centre of Excellence and contribute towards Sellafield Ltd’s long-term goal of becoming carbon neutral by 2050. The students spent a week on the project at the Engineering Centre of Excellence, working with the Sellafield team and gaining personal development coaching from the Centre for Leadership Performance, followed by three days working on the project at Lakes College. The students researched and evaluated their solution options by focusing on three categories: • Reduction: lowering the usage of power • Alternative: using different, off-grid, sources of power • Culture: people’s opinion at the Centre of Excellence; stakeholders’ opinion At the end of their eight days of project work the students presented their findings to Engineering Centre of Excellence’s senior managers at a specially-arranged project outbrief event held at Lakes College on Wednesday (August 23). Those attending were presented with the following recommendations by the students to deliver to the brief most effectively and within budget: roof insulation; tinted/stained windows; double/triple glazing; wind energy; and signage with carbon reduction messaging. The students – Jackson Benn, from Moresby (who attended Lakes College); Dylan Penn from Cleator Moor (St Benedict’s); Dylan Stalker, from Egremont (Lakes College), Harley Berragan from Cleator Moor (West Lakes Academy); Aaron Currier, from Whitehaven (Lakes College); and Keegan Holliday from Workington (Workington Academy) – all explained how they had learned from the pilot summer sprint experience. As well as enhancing their technical skills, the students were asked what personal development they had gained from the project. They said it had improved their communication skills, ability to develop ideas, time management, ability to work independently, adapt to working in a new environment and with new people, learning from experienced engineers, improved their knowledge of what working on a project involves and enabled them to work as a team. Craig Branney, Sellafield Ltd’s Head of Off-Site Developments said the next step from the pilot project was to ensure there were career pathways into employment for those who took part and others in the area interested in pursuing engineering qualifications. Craig said: “This is our first summer sprint working with Lakes College and the Centre for Leadership Performance and it has been a really positive experience. What is crucial now is how we work together to make sure there are job opportunities for them in the supply chain. “We have given them their first taste of what an engineering career involves. For me now it’s vital we find out how we complete the loop and get them into employment. “This is only the start. What would be great is to develop this first summer pilot into a full six-week sprint project in future years involving several supply chain companies as well.” Lorna Devine said: “It’s been great to work with students who have all volunteered to be here. They are such a great mix with some looking to start on engineering degrees, others looking for an apprenticeship and they have all come together to work really well as a team and have been inspired about a career in engineering which is great.” Sharon Baillie, Lakes College Business Engagement Manager, said: “The students have shown fantastic commitment to take part in the sprint and develop their skills in their own time. This is going to stand them in good stead when they are looking for employment.” Sophie Reynolds, Centre for Leadership Performance’s Workplace Programmes Manager, said; “It was really interesting to see such a big change in the students from the start of the project to the presentation just ten days later. They have all come a massively long way.”
SIX students gave up time in their summer holidays to take part in an engineering sustainability challenge which has inspired them to pursue future employment opportunities. The aspiring engineers, all from West Cumbria and either at college...
TEACHERS CALL FOR TECH REVOLUTION FOLLOWING RESULTS DAY DISAPPOINTMENT
In light of this year’s drop in GCSE and A Level results, Judith Wills, a Maths SME at Kings Priory School, alongside education software provider, Access Education, is calling for a KS3 learning revolution. With only 26.5 per...
Reading Solutions UK celebrates school success this academic year.
Gateshead-based EdTech company Reading Solutions UK (RSUK) has helped over 107,000 students read a combined 9 billion words in the 2022/23 academic year thanks to their online reading development programme, Reading Plus. Reading Plus is used...
New Job Board Launches with 8,000+ Listings for Male Educators
Male Childcare & Teaching Jobs, an organisation dedicated to celebrating and encouraging men in the education sector, has launched a groundbreaking job board specifically targeting male educators. With a robust starting lineup of over 8,000 job...
Teachers Flee UK Classrooms For Sunnier Climes
UK teachers are seeking a less stressful and more lucrative working situation by teaching English abroad with a TEFL qualification. As the recent teacher strikes have brought to our attention, UK teachers are overworked and underpaid. The...
Anthology Appoints Bruce Dahlgren as CEO
Anthology, a leading provider of education software solutions that support the entire learner lifecycle, announced today that Chief Executive Officer and Chairman Jim Milton will retire after more than nine years of service to the company. He...
University of Glasgow and Turner Kirk Trust launch project to improve children’s performance in STEM subjects
The University of Glasgow has secured funding from the Turner Kirk Trust to launch an innovative project to make STEM fields more accessible to all. The STEM Spatial Cognition Enhancement project, or STEM SPACE, will provide spatial skills...
