SATRO S7 Vocational Curriculum Project

During the weeks of 16 and 23 January 2012, SATRO has undertaken four separate workshops at Sixth Form colleges in Esher, Godalming, Reigate and Woking. 

These workshops are designed to help and encourage local school students - who might not be considering 6th form education - in the opportunities that are available to them at the colleges.  To provide further encouragement, each student is working alongside a dedicated business mentor, to help them set and achieve study and education objectives as they approach GCSE.

The workshops included presentations by college staff, and a chance to meet and question a 6th form student about college life and the benefits of studying there.  There was then an opportunity for students and mentors to work together on setting and achieving new objectives.

The project - which began in November 2011 - will reach its conclusion in late March when the students from all four locations will come together with their business mentors for a further workshop event at Woking College.

Students help construct Olympic stadium

On the 11^th January 2012, 16 students took part in an Olympic challenge as a part of the ‘Invest in your Success’ project. 11 students were from Fullbrook School and 5 from Wishmore Cross.  After a brief, their aim was to design and build, as a team, a construction that could be used as a prototype for an Olympic stadium for a sport of their choice. At the end, it had to be strong enough to hold at least a 1kg weight.

The students started to work as a team, as it’s something they don’t tend to do at school too often, and take on different roles.  They also had to be able to explain their ideas/design to us at the end and it had to be big enough for the whole team to fit inside.  It was also great to see some potential engineers shine through!

St Albans school gets into business

On the 19^th January 2012, 25 year six children (ten & eleven year olds) at St Albans primary school in East Mosley, Surrey had a hugely exciting day running a bookmark company. Pupils took on roles such as Managing director and Marketing Manager and they worked together as a team to complete deadlines.

Teachers at the day commented:

“A truly excellent way of introducing them to the ‘real world’”

“A very positive day – pupils fully engaged. The activity was very well organised and everything ran smoothly”. 

Pupils who took part said:

“I really enjoyed being given a challenge and finding out all the jobs and the hard work in the world of work”

“keep doing this -  I really enjoyed it”.

Claygate Primary discovers Maths and Science

On the 11^th January 2012 Claygate Primary school took part in a Fun Maths workshop, with 153 pupils’ attending.   Fun Maths is an interactive hands on workshop to inspire pupils about maths in a fun environment.

A teacher who attended the day commented:

“The children were engaged in problem solving games with a partner. The mathematical language as the children strived to solve the problems was immense. Instructions from adults were clear and concise”.

Pupils that attended said:

“I learnt that I am better at maths than I thought I was”

“Some things look hard but when you think about it, it makes sense”

When asked what the best bit was one pupil said “Going round and doing different problem solving and having fun doing the. Thank you for a great afternoon”.

Surrey schools time travel!

On 13^th January 2012 Students and teachers from 13 Secondary schools met at the Frimley UK Headquarters of Siemens, for the launch of their Company Challenge – the Next Big Thing.  Siemens is a provider of innovative solution in 4 major areas: Energy / Healthcare / Industry / Infrastructure and Cities.  The teams were shown videos explaining those 4 areas to encourage them to choose one and focus on the next big advance, or application in that field. This could be a new automated transport system, new diagnostic machines in hospitals, and new ways of creating lighting or power or new robots.  Teams were asked to consider some practicalities – for example time travel is still out of the question but high speed travel exists!

Each school then met their selected Mentors who will visit the schools at least twice in the coming term to encourage and support students and help them prepare for the Dragon’s Den to be held on May 10th at Siemens offices.

As with all Company Challenges run by SATRO and Surrey businesses, there are cash prizes, trophies, and certificates to be won as well as the opportunity to meet and visit local businesses and learn so many new skills – and have fun into the bargain!

Press the Red Button!

SATRO have now recruited 8 Surrey schools to take part in the Red Button Challenge in collaboration with NDS Ltd, an international software technologies company. At the launch back on the 29^th September, NDS tasked the schools to be creative about new ‘red button’ Apps and took the opportunity to demonstrate their whizz bang technology which really got the students interested!

Students have now started work on phase one – In which they have been brainstorming, deciding on an idea for their project, researching the TV industry and Apps and researching today’s market! On 31^st January all 8 teams will have submitted their projects briefs to NDS.

Roll on phase 2 to actually design the App!

Charlotte excels in Science

You may remember our Nuffield Bursary student Charlotte Burton from Lady Eleanor Holles School receiving the Exceptional Achievement Award for her work on Tissue Growth in Mice Mandibles at Kings College Dental School back in November 2011. If not refer here.

After Christmas we had some fabulous news from Charlotte, shes just been offered to read Biochemistry at Lincoln College, Oxford and on top of that she's just reached the national final of the Big Bang Competition!

The Big Bang Competition is "Open to all 11-18 year olds living in the UK and in full-time education, the Competition rewards students who have achieved excellence in a STEM project".  thebigbangfair.co.uk/

Well done Charlotte! We are really rooting for you here at the SATRO office!

Happy New Year

The SATRO office is back in action despite the blustery weather. We hope you all had a fantastic Christmas as everyone in the office has. We have loads of exciting new projects coming up as well as our usual and fantastic business games and school events. Watch this space!