Secondary Award Winners

We were very pleased to give our last minor award of the Autumn term to John Warner for their science project.

The award will fund some additional, high-priced physics equipment that the school could not otherwise afford, and which will enhance pupils’ motivation and understanding.  The items include a vacuum pump, bell jar, Guinea and feather apparatus, demonstration loudspeaker and a National Grid simulator.

The equipment will benefit pupils across all key stages as well as used in special events such as science week and open evenings. 

In a very strong application, Jordan Hipwood (Acting Head of Science), explained some of the experiments that the equipment would be used for and added some compelling arguments: 

Due to a lack of more specialised physics equipment over a number of years our students do not see the exciting practical demonstrations that others may do in other schools.

The intention is to train up teachers in how to use the new equipment to bring an emphasis back to physics and instil a love and excitement for the subject.

And finally…

This equipment will make such a big difference to the engagement and progress of our students in science not to mention motivate teachers to make their lessons exciting and practical whilst trying to ensure students know that there is more to life than social media and living your life through videos which would usually be used to demonstrate these investigations.

We will be featuring feedback from schools on the benefits their projects have had in the news pages or as an add-on to their initial award news.  Here's one of the first...

Year 8 & 10 boys reached the County tennis finals.

Longdean school, were lucky enough to secure funding to enable the development of the new Longdean Tennis Hub. The intent of the Hub was to develop tennis within the local area in partnership with Leverstock Green Tennis Club. Coaches from the club were able to attend every Key Stage 3 PE lesson for boys and girls at Longdean School as well as three local junior schools.  This meant that over 800 students in the local area received high quality coaching throughout the summer term to help promote the sport.

This was a great opportunity for all of these students to have high quality coaching and really help the more able students with specific coaching points to help improve their technique.  The lessons were pitched so all could access and enabled the students not only to make progress but to give them the opportunity to get specialised coaching. 

They were also able to attend the after school club which was also run by the tennis coaches, where they received even further coaching and specific areas to help improve their performance.

This clearly helped as the Year 8 & 10 boys progressed through the County Tennis competition and both year groups made the finals to narrowly lose out to private schools.

From these coaching sessions it has also the aim to direct students to the next steps that they could take within the tennis world should they wish to by highlighting the various sessions run at the local Tennis club. From the sessions many students have attended club sessions away from school time who otherwise would not have done so. One of the Hub junior schools have even committed further to the programme by adding tennis to their PE curriculum in the September term and hiring club coaches.

We are very appreciative of the funding that we received as a school that enabled us to develop the Longdean Tennis Hub and hope that we are able to continue the successes in future years.

Sele School successfully applied for a STEM Minor Award to fund a “Mission to Mars” workshop for their Year 9 students.

The workshop will be run by Setpoint who…

"…are an educational charity whose aim is to inspire young people about Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM). We achieve THIS by engaging young people in memorable experiences and by enriching their lives through exposure to role models…”

The Mission to Mars full-day workshop is…

“A robotics challenge using Lego Mindstorms. Students learn to build and programme a robotic vehicle which must overcome a series of obstacles during the final presentation session”

Sele are a small school with the resulting low funding and find it very hard to finance extra-curricular and enriching activities.  We thought this was an excellent way of exciting pupils about science, especially as it utilises effective learning principles such as using outside experts and hands-on, practical activities.

In addition to bringing experts in, Sele’s bid also included a contribution to take 30 other pupils out to participate in a workshop led by Sir Robert Winston.

As Laura Morgan, Head of Science, wrote:

“Students at our school have a clear passion for Science, however being a small school with limited funding we are restricted in the extra-curricular and enriching activities we can provided. Students are unlikely to experience such activities if not provided with little to no cost implications due to the large proportion of disadvantaged students in our cohort.”

Haileybury Turnford have made a successful PE Minor Application for free weights and other non-cardio equipment.  They are setting up a fitness suite with cardio machines and wanted to extend the provision to offer the full range of activities.

The bid certainly ticked our  “number of students benefitting” box, as Sian Ashby, Head of PE, wrote in her bid: 

“This would support the entire school community of over 800 students within core PE lessons as well as GCSE course at KS4 and A Level course for our sixth form students. This would provide us with the opportunity to develop students’ knowledge of fitness aspects, testing and basic muscle management within their lessons. We would also utilize the new equipment as an extra-curricular club.”

EdufundUK have quite a tradition of supporting various aspects of gym/fitness suite bids as we believe many “switched-off” pupils will be open to this form of exercise as they see adults paying for gym membership.  These bids especially help pupil premium students who would perhaps find it difficult to access gym sessions outside of school.  The variety of exercise available helps pupils find their strengths and to set them on a path of lifelong fitness and the facilities also help potential elite sportswomen and men focus on the areas they really need to develop.

We were very excited to give our first award to a special school this year.  Watling View applied for an Effective Learning Award to equip a dedicated therapeutic environment where pupils can regulate themselves when needed.  The equipment bid for gave multi-sensory benefits and included such things as a swing frame, aroma therapy oils and lights and a massage station.  Watling View is a 3-19 school so primary aged pupils will also greatly benefit from the award as it will help instil strategies and practice for calming down from a very early age.

As Andy Scott, Headteacher, explained:

“This award would benefit all pupils at the school as it will help them to develop an understanding of themselves and the ability to regulate themselves. By doing this it will help to ensure that pupils are able to be focused on their learning and support each individual to be able to make holistic progress in all areas of their learning.”