School News: It all adds up for St Aidan's High in Wishaw

St Aidan’s High school brought home four Gold Awards from the annual UK Maths Challenge in October, writes Devlin Connelly.

The four senior pupils who achieved gold were Brodie Crooks, Hashim Idrees, Valentina Joseph and Millie Tonner.

This is hosted by the UK Maths Trust, which is open to all schools in the UK. St Aidan’s participated for the 26th time. The school has done very well throughout the years, with exceptional scores and many gold awards.

Brodie said “It’s rewarding when you can answer the questions. You get a Eureka moment and that’s great.”

Valentina said “I have entered every year and it is lovely to take part in the tradition. It’s tough and very satisfying to work it out.”

Millie said “It’s an intense experience, but it’s worth it in the end!”

Mr Tony Callaghan teaches Maths and has been involved in the school’s entry for a quarter of a century. He said, “People get a lot of satisfaction from it, and for people to experience maths that is not a part of the course study can help build a different relationship with the subject.”

Victory for S3 in National Faraday Challenge

A team of S3 pupils from St Aidan’s High in Wishaw have triumphed in the UK-wide Faraday Engineering Challenge.

Having reached the top five schools from many hundreds of entries, the school’s team was invited to the final at Alder Hey Children’s NHS Foundation Trust in Liverpool. They were tasked to work in teams to create a prototype which could be used in a children’s hospital to make hospital stays more comfortable for young patients and their loved ones.

The pupils involved in the challenge were Keira Delaney, Emma Dunn, Mollie Hill, Jedidiah Key, Jonatan Nagy and Xavier Smorag.

The St Aidan’s team created a ‘munchie box’ which helps patients choose what to eat whilst in hospital and to motivate those who are struggling to eat. The teams were judged on their team working, problem solving and creative thinking.

They were supported and advised by Mr Fionn O’Mara, teacher of Physics, and accompanied by Mrs Paula Brown, teacher of Technical Studies. As well as a prestigious title and trophy, the pupils won £1000 for their school to spend on STEM activities.

It has now been announced that the invention will be put into production. The invention will feature in 40 new hospitals across England and the pupils will be heavily involved in the design process. The students were later invited to speak about their victory at IHEEM’s National conference being held at the Manchester Central Convention Centre.

Morag Stuart, Programme director of the New Hospital Programme, said “we were hugely impressed by what these young teams have achieved and their creativity in responding to a real-world challenge”

Pete Sellars, chief executive of IHEEM, commented “we have witnessed a remarkable amount of aptitude, imagination and creativity from the students taking part and I am personally eager to see how the journey of all the students progresses.”

The winners discussed their experience and the effect it had on them. Mollie Hill said “It brought us all together. When we had a problem, we had to communicate effectively to solve it”. Jedidiah Key stated that “it was quite nerve wracking, but it was fun to be there”. Jonatan Nagy said “We had to go through a lot of challenges, but we faced them with confidence and teamwork”.

Scottish Careers Week

Pupils from St Aidan’s High in Wishaw recently took part in Scottish Careers Week, write Callum Gibson and John Kelly.

Throughout the week pupils across all year groups got the chance to look at possible career paths, and this culminated in a Jobs Fair featuring 25 local employers. The employers had the chance to showcase a variety of professions, ranging from civil servants to local construction companies. The pupils took the chance to ask questions and enquire about future job opportunities.

Teachers also focused lessons based on Developing the Young Workforce and discussing subject-related job opportunities.

Lorena Grey from Strathclyde University talked about the success of the week. “It has been really engaging with lots of questions coming my way, it was great to see there was so much interest”.

Reiss Buchanan, an S6 student, also spoke about the benefits of the week.

He said: “It was a real eye opener to all of the different career paths I can take. I found it very insightful getting to learn about the opportunities that are available to me”.

The week was a great success, not only benefiting the senior pupils but also the younger year groups, who will now gain more of an understanding of all the options available to them.

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