Cranford Review 2016

Career and Higher Education
On
29th March and 1st April 2016 as part
of the school’s TI day, year 8 students
were introduced to the world of “coding” recently
when they took part in the Heathrow Coding
Challenge. In teams of 4 they had to build a robot
from a large bag of shapes. Not only did the
robot have to move but it had to be programmed
to navigate an obstacle course and stay mobile
for 30 seconds in a race against others. Emotions
ran high as teams pitched their coding abilities
against each other in elimination heats. Tenacity
was the watchword as teams continually went
back to their tables, refining, reprogramming,
using their learning from STEM subjects (science,
technology, maths and engineering) to create
an unbeatable robot. Students practised their
communication skills, learning how to work as a
successful team and encouraged everyone to be
involved. We thank Heathrow’s Learning to Work
Team whose talk to the year 8 students about the
work opportunities that Heathrow offers and the
varied routes in to them was very inspiring. It is
more important than ever to be knowledgeable
about coding and programming as it is estimated
that the UK will need a workface of 1 million
digital skilled workers by 2020.
“The coding
challenge was
incredible but was
tricky, challenging
and hard. But in the
end, it feels better
when the robot passes
the finish line”.
Andre Telmo (year 8)
“When I had the Coding Challenge, I really
enjoyed it because I had an opportunity to learn
how to code a piece of Lego. Also the support
from Heathrow was very helpful”.
Christian Mihalache
(year 8)
It
was exciting times for year 8 students on Wednesday 8th June 2016 as Irish
boy band, “Taken”, performed a series of songs just for them. The band,
from Dublin, were given a warm year 8 welcome before the
talented trio proceeded to entertain and educate the year group
with a series of popular songs, including Justin Bieber’s Love
Yourself, intermingled with messages about the dangers of, and
issues surrounding, online bullying. Spirits were running high,
music was blaring and fun was had by all and, as Taken headed
to Heathrow to continue their tour of Europe, the students meandered home, to put
their newly acquired knowledge about online safety to good use.
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Julie Tomkins (Careers and Higher Education Consultant)