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Working up a head of STEAM!

27th April 2018

Students at Chase Terrace Technology College’s STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Maths) after-school club have been at school late, often not leaving until 6:30pm, up-skilling themselves in the electronics. They have been supported by three members of the Stafford Amateur Radio Club, who being retired, have given their time freely to pass on their invaluable knowledge and infectious enthusiasm. The group has been supported ,both financially and through the provision of electronic components by two local companies: Valyou Recruitment (who specialise in the engineering sector); and ATP Electronics Development (who ‘reverse engineer’ electronics for ‘marque’ vehicles).

Distinctively, this project work has also involved the students’ parents, who have enjoyed working alongside their children. Projects completed so far are: building an astable multivibrator (a circuit that causes two LED lights to turn on/off alternately) and constructing an electronics circuit that sets off an alarm when a fridge/freezer door is left open for too long, preventing food from spoiling. Future planned projects include: building a radio; and designing a circuit to warn a farmer when might be the best time to water their crops.

Secondary school settings often lack the closer contact with parents that primary settings have. The club is an opportunity to do something quite special in bringing together students, industry and parents for a very positive common purpose in sharing new skills and learning from each other. The students have learnt and accomplished a great deal already and we can’t wait to see where they and their parents will take this. This relationship between industry and lifelong learning is something that the Stephen Sutton Multi Academy Trust is very keen to continue to grow.

Gary Mulvey (SSMAT Teaching and Learning Consultant) / James Tennant (CTTC STEAM Club Leader)

Filed Under: School

30th November 2017

Julie Poppleton, Information, Advice and Guidance Manager for Chase Terrace Technology College, has been shortlisted as a potential ‘Careers Champion’, a recognition award run by ‘Working Advisor’ a national careers professionals network. Julie does an amazing job for the young people of CTTC and also runs some of the largest, most ambitious careers events in the West Midlands. Moreover, she plays a leading role in local skills and enterprise networks and supports SSMAT’s ambitious goals to play a role in helping to improve the employment prospects of people in the local communities of SSMAT partner schools.

Julie is up against five other careers professionals. Voting opened today and closes in a week’s time. There’s £1000 worthy of careers-related resources up for grabs and an opportunity to give Julie the recognition she deserves, so if you know Julie and the outstanding work that she does please vote for her at: http://careerschampion.co.uk

 

 

Filed Under: School

30th November 2017

Earlier this week, the Government launched its new Industrial Strategy, designed to ‘increase innovation, develop skills, grow business and drive productivity in urban and rural places across the UK’. Dedicated investment has been pledged to drive growth across the UK, with an acknowledgement that London has had a very large slice of the cake, and that investment in transport, housing and digital infrastructure needs to be strategically distributed across the country to create extra economic growth and address equality of opportunity issues.

Educational standards, relevant skills development and progression routes into the right types of employment play critical roles in this agenda and, as a new and ambitious multi-academy trust, SSMAT is committed to playing its part in supporting the Industrial Strategy in the West Midlands region. ‘Relationship with the community’ is one of our five areas of strategic intent and major foci, within this strand, are on Information, Advice and Guidance for young people and on working with local employers to broker and develop support for members of the community looking to improve their employment prospects. Where members of the community are parents or other family members of SSMAT schools, these two strands are mutually supportive.

SSMAT staff are getting as involved as we can in local business networks, including the local Skills and Enterprise Board and the Chamber of Commerce, and aim to have some partnership initiatives in place later in the year. Any local businesses interested in working with us should contact Sharon Thorp, Trust Business Manager, for a chat about how we can work together for the benefit of the community and help to address business goals.

 

Filed Under: Executive Director's Blog

6th November 2017

Congratulations to Chase Terrace Technology College for being shortlisted in the ‘ 2017 Outstanding Contribution to Society’ category for the annual awards presented by the Asian Business Chamber of Commerce. I’m thrilled for the school and special mention must go to Julie Poppleton, Head of Information, Advice and Guidance, whose work on careers education and the development of employability skills, through strong involvement with local business, is becoming widely recognised as ‘leading edge’ practice.

https://www.stephensuttonmat.co.uk/2017/11/06/607/

Filed Under: Executive Director's Blog

4th October 2017

 

Youth Employment UK have awarded CTTC its ‘Gold Award’ in recognition of its outstanding work in preparing young people for their journey into work. The school is the first in the country to achieve the award, so this is an accolade of which the school should be very proud. Julie Poppleton, the school’s Head of Information, Advice and Guidance, leads this aspect of the school’s work and has ensured that CTTC is very well connected to the local business community, for the benefit of the students, who need to understand what the labour market is like and how they need to prepare themselves for the opportunities and challenges ahead.

 

Filed Under: Executive Director's Blog

8th September 2017

As a parent, I’ve been through the process of applying for secondary school places three times and appreciate that there’s a lot to consider. First of all, there’s how the decision is made: my children, my wife and I were not always looking for the same things in the schools we were comparing but we all had a vested interest and a stake and had to a lot of talking to find the ‘best fit’. Then there’s the broad range of things to consider:

Will the school provide the right type of environment and support?

Will my son/daughter be treated as an individual, so that their abilities will develop and flourish?

Is the school’s record of academic achievement strong over time?

Is there a breadth and flexibility in the curriculum and a full extra-curricular programme?

There are also the practical issues:

How will they get to school and how much will it cost (transport, uniform etc.)?

What are the chances of getting in and how should I order my preferences?

We considered each of these points carefully, read the Ofsted reports, checked the DfE performance tables and browsed through the websites. However (at the risk of sounding clichéd), in my opinion, there really is no substitute for getting into the schools and getting a feel of what they are like. I’d encourage all parents making this tough decision over the next few weeks to take any opportunity you can to visit the schools you’re considering in good time before the deadline (31 October). Best of luck!

 

Filed Under: Executive Director's Blog

8th September 2017

At this time of the year, parents of year 6 children are making their applications for secondary schools places. Chase Terrace Technology College has been oversubscribed in recent years but aims to make as many places available as possible for the local community. Having increased its accommodation, the school is now able to offer extra places for next year, having increased its Planned Admission Number from 232 to 270. The school also organises its own transport service for students who live outside Burntwood.

Filed Under: School

20th July 2017

Yesterday, the Government finally published its response to the English Baccalaureate (EBacc) consultation, which closed 18 months ago! The EBacc is a combination of ‘core academic’ GCSE qualifications – English, maths, science , a modern foreign language and either history or geography. Over the course of 2011 to 2015, having introduced the EBacc as a school performance measure (it is not a qualification in its own right), the Government shifted its position and announced its intention to make this combination of subjects compulsory. Compulsory has subsequently become 90% of students, 90% has become 75% and the time-scale for achieving this measure has been shifted back 5 years.

There are few people who do not support the argument that, as is the case without the EBacc, English, maths and science should sensibly be included in the school curriculum for all young people. There are also compelling arguments for the place of languages and humanities subjects in the curriculum (though many question the specific choice of history or geography, rather that RE or other humanities-based courses). However, as English and science courses are typically double or triple qualifications, a full EBacc combination comprises seven or eight GCSEs, leaving very little space for creative and performing arts, other humanities, technology/engineering, other vocationally orientated courses, PSHE (personal, social and health education), citizenship / enterprise and careers education. In particular, the drop in entries for creative arts and technology-related subjects has resulted in many industry leaders calling for a re-think, on the basis that the UK will lose its competitive edge in these economically important industry sectors.

My view is that schools can be expected to design their curricula so that students can choose from a broad range of courses and that could sensibly include ensuring that students have an entitlement to study a combination of GCSEs, including languages, arts and humanities subjects. However, compelling schools to impose an EBacc curriculum on all (or the great majority of) students is, it seems to me, misconceived. Students need: to be supported through strong information, advice and guidance; to be given gradually increased responsibility for their choices; to have opportunities to develop employability skills; and to be able to undertake courses that enable them to be successful. These characteristics, together with the core academic subjects of English, maths and science, seem to me to be a more suitable basis for the curriculum experience of young people aged 15/16 . We’ll have to see how it all works out but, as far as possible, I hope that schools will be able to make decisions on the basis of what they believe to be in the best interests of the students themselves.

Filed Under: Executive Director's Blog

18th July 2017

Great experience this week for Year 10 students from CTTC and Year 5 students from Springhill Primary Academy, working together to produce art work based on the theme of ‘The Sea’. Each GCSE student worked with a pair of primary students. The older students used stimulus works from a range of artists to inspire some creative approaches and the finished work will be displayed in Springhill’s shared reading area. The older students led the session and all involved enjoyed the experience. There are so many benefits from this approach – we plan to keep on doing lots of this, in different ways, across the Trust.

Filed Under: Executive Director's Blog

10th July 2017

Each year, Burntwood Town Council awards two annual bursaries of £1000 to talented young people who aim to go on to greater achievements in the arts, sport or academic fields. To qualify for consideration for the bursary, you must be:

  • resident within the Burntwood Town Council boundaries (even if you attend a Burntwood school)
  • aged between 11–14 or 15-19 years
  • able to demonstrate an outstanding level in relation to your activity

The scheme is intended to help to fund additional opportunities and resources, including purchasing specialist equipment or clothing, undertaking research projects, getting extra tuition or coaching, competition fees and travel costs.

The 2017 Bursary Award scheme is now open and applications should be submitted by 30 September 2017.

For full details and an application form are available Burntwood Town Council’s website: www.burntwood-tc.gov.uk

Filed Under: School

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