PUPILS from Rhosnesni School in Wrexham have been reaching for the sky with a master class designed to help them boost their skills.
The STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) master class which was run by Young Enterprise Northwest on behalf of ScottishPower involved over 200 pupils.
The year- ten pupils were given the task of creating their own airline, planning routes, designing their airline logo, as well as costing the seats. They rounded off the exercise by presenting a proposal to a panel of STEM ambassador judges from ScottishPower.
Lesley Griffiths, Labour Party Assembly Member for Wrexham and Deputy Minister for Science, Innovation and Skills, attended the event to see the pupils completing various exercises and gain an overview of the project.
The initiative follows on from the setting up of a Business in the Community (BITC) Human Resources forum where a number of North Wales businesses, including ScottishPower, agreed to champion a secondary school in their area to promote the STEM agenda.
Guy Jefferson, network operations director at ScottishPower and chair of the BITC Human Resources Forum, said: “We are extremely pleased and proud to support Rhosnesni School. The master class was developed to help increase the pupils’ STEM expertise and is one of many industry specific programmes that will assist pupils to develop skills that employers look for when recruiting.”
Lesley Griffiths AM, said: “I am delighted ScottishPower has chosen to champion Rhosnesni High School. The STEM project offers young people a valuable opportunity to gain hands on experience of science and technology, and it was great to see this in action.
“Science and all the STEM subjects are so important for the future economy of Wales and events such as these are an important part of raising the profile of the STEM agenda.”
Gareth Hughes, head teacher at Rhosnesni School, said: “The STEM workshops were of great benefit in helping and engaging our pupils in learning. It was a very worthwhile exercise and one which is of great value.
“There are significant gains that working with industry can bring to pupils self-esteem, confidence, teamwork and employability skills and we were delighted to take part in the master classes.”
As part of ScottishPower’s continuous support of education, the company has worked with Rhosnesni School on a number of initiatives and projects over the years including an employability workshop, a drama initiative and additional curriculum support.
Issued by The BIG Partnership on behalf of ScottishPower.
For more information please contact:
Susanne Grant on 0141 333 9585 / 07824 388 472 or email susanne.grant@bigpartnership.co.uk
Kim Munro on 0141 333 9585 / 07966 224 910 or email kim.munro@bigpartnership.co.uk