UTC Oxfordshire
December 2017
Welcome from the Principal
Dear all,
We have had an extremely busy autumn term and I am very proud of what we have achieved in just 13 weeks. We have continued to plan and deliver our curriculum based around employability skills and future destinations; this term has seen projects with Air Products, BMW Mini, Oxford Brookes University and Oxford Space Systems, visiting speakers, trips and work experience placements.
For the first time, we combined our Sixth Form Open Evening with a Careers Forum to showcase the value and range of opportunities from our partners. It was very well attended and all the feedback showed it was a very successful evening. It was rewarding to see so many of our alumni students now on the 'other side' and representing the employers in speaking with our students - all they have worked hard for over the last 2 years has paid off.
A similar highlight was the presentation of the Duke of York Gold Awards from His Royal Highness hosted at St James' Palace. Two out of 3 outstanding achievement awards went to UTC Oxfordshire students, which we were very proud of. All of them talk with enthusiasm about the support and encouragement they received UTC Oxfordshire as well how much they are enjoying their new role.
May I take this opportunity to thank both students and staff for all of their hard work this term, and also to thank them and their families for their ongoing support of the school. I wish you all a very enjoyable and restful Christmas and New Year - this holiday period is a good time to reflect on accomplishments over this past year and to plan for the big events of 2018.
Owain and all at UTC Oxfordshire
Dates for the Diary
December
- Wednesday 13th, Christmas Dinner
- Friday 15th, 1.15pm finish for end of term
January
- Monday 8th, start of term
- Monday 8th-Friday 19th Pre-Public Exams
- Monday 15th - new gym classes/personal training sessions for students after school
- Wednesday 7th, Reading Y10 Scholars trip
- Monday 12th-Friday 16th, half term
- Wednesday 28th, Open Evening
March
- Tuesday 6th, 3.30-6pm, Year 11 Parents' Evening (lessons finish 2.45pm)
- Wednesday 14th, 3.30-6pm, Y10 Parents' Evening (lessons finish 2.45pm)
- Monday 26th-Thursday 29th, Y10 Work Experience Week
- Wednesday 28th, term ends
Apprenticeships
The RAF and Royal Navy recruit all year round and currently have many vacancies for a wide variety of engineering (and other) apprenticeships: see their websites for details.
The Mini plant will be opening applications for their very competitive apprenticeship in early January. We will update you with further details soon.
BT are advertising engineering apprenticeships for students who will have GCSEs or A levels by September 2018:
www.btplc.com/Careercentre/earlycareers/apprentices/ourprogrammes/engineeringservices/index.htm
Examinations
When we come back in January we go straight into the PPE (Pre Public Exams) weeks. These start on Monday 8th January for Years 11, 12 and 13 and run for 2 weeks. You can find the timetable here. The summer examinations timetable is also available on this link.
We understand that examination times can be stressful for students. The PPE weeks will be run as if they were external exams so that we can prepare the students fully for the summer. If you have any queries regarding examinations then please contact Sarah Mayers on exams@utcoxfordshire.org.uk
Please note that there is a new rule (from the exam boards) this year regarding watches. No watches are to be worn in an examination. Students are already aware of this rule but if you could remind them it would be appreciated.
Off Site Study Privilege
Y12 and Y13 students will soon be able to apply for off site study privilege. In practical terms this means that students will be able to apply to leave school after their last lesson of the day by signing out at reception. In order to be eligible for off site study privileges, students must:
- have a good record of attendance (95% or over) and punctuality
- complete an application form which has been emailed to them
- collect signatures from teachers to confirm the student is working hard and up to date
- have completed all this terms assignments or January's PPEs to a satisfactory standard
- collect a new ID card which identifies the student as having off site study privilege (this is necessary for reception staff to be able to identify who can leave the building). The cost is £2.50.
New Student Gym Classes
Careers Fest 2018 - Information for Parents
Is your son or daughter looking for ideas and inspiration for what to do when they leave school? Would you like to know more about opportunities available locally? Come to Careers Fest on 6th February from 4pm at MINI Plant Oxford! For the first time this year, there will be an open session for parents, carers, families and students who aren’t attending with their school, or who would like to come back with their family. You will have the opportunity to:
• talk to over 50 employers, further education colleges, universities and training organisations
• meet apprentices and other employees and ask all your questions about starting out in the world of work
• get information and advice on future paths and careers from a varied range of sectors
• have a go at practical activities relating to different roles to get a feel for what a job entails
• find out about the sorts of jobs and careers available locally
Booking is essential. Please visit: https://tinyurl.com/careersfest. Click on ‘Register’ and scroll down to choose your time slot – 4pm, 5pm or 6pm. If you have any questions, please contact Clare McLening on 07769 742295 or clare.mclening@oxfordshirelep.com
(Please note that a group of our Y11s will be attending Careers Fest in school time, but we would encourage all students/parents to take advantage of this opportunity.)
Latest issue of Technical Matters
Duke of York Awards for Technical Education
We are delighted that on 6th November 23 UTC Oxfordshire students from last year’s Year 13 cohort were invited to St James’ Palace to receive their Duke of York Gold awards from Prince Andrew. As these ex-UTC students are now either working in apprenticeships or studying at university, it was impressive that 15 of them were able to take time off their busy schedules to attend the awards in person. We were also particularly thrilled that 2 of the 3 outstanding achievement awards went to UTC Oxfordshire students: Toby Hall for Outstanding Progress and Tiffany Cox, Yassmine Girgis, Francesca Topp and Lucy Doran for Best Female Engineering Team (the photo shows Yass, Fran and Lucy accepting the award on behalf of themselves and Tiffany). The Duke of York himself is a passionate supporter of technical education and gave an inspiring speech before taking tea and mingling with the students. The Duke was particularly interested in how attending a UTC had helped the students get into their apprenticeships with, for example, Williams F1, CCFE, STFC, Oxford Space Systems and X-trac, or how the experience had helped students gain entry to top engineering courses at university.
As well as those named above, the following students also achieved the Gold Award: Lawrence Birkhead, Joshua Crolla, James Druce, Elliot Dyer, Thomas Eagles, Sam Embling, Joshua Green, James Hollingham, Callum Huntley, Jamie Napper, Joshua Phillipps, Charlie Plows, Oliver Rees, Chaiwat Vongseenin, Robert Wakelin, Robert Watts, Robert Weekes and Robson Witts.
Sixth Form Open Evening
On 29th November we ran a Sixth Form Open Evening which was extremely well attended. Prospective students and their families toured the school, talked to staff, visited the Careers Forum and heard Sue Lea (Head of Sixth Form) talk about the different curriculum pathways that UTC Oxfordshire offers. For those Y11 students wishing to stay on for the sixth form, the key date is 31st December which is the last date for priority applications. All applicants will be invited to discuss their applications as soon as possible, after which successful candidates will receive an offer letter. Their place will be confirmed after the GCSE results are published. Sue has just published a sixth form newsletter which can be viewed here. Apply (and keep up with UTC news) via our website www.utcoxfordshire.org.uk. We also often share news on Twitter
Our Careers Forum
Comments received from these organisations after the event included: 'We thoroughly enjoyed the evening and we were very impressed with how many students were very motivated and interested in future opportunities at our company', 'Overall the event entirely fulfilled my expectations. I was happy with it on all levels' and 'A fabulous event, we certainly met a lot of enthusiastic students, the evening was a great success'.
As a result of feedback from this combined event, we have decided to hold a general Open Event on 28th February, showcasing the school, our employer-contacts, our community involvement, the facilities we let out and the groups that use them. There will be more details about this in January.
STUDENT NEWS
Rotary Club Student of the Term Award
Youth Speaks
On 5th December Glen took a team of students to take part in the Rotary Club's Youth Speaks competition. They had been coached and mentored towards the competition by Fiona Brennan-Scott who runs Bespoken. These are her comments afterwards on Linked In: 'So incredibly proud of these articulate, clever and courageous young people from UTC, Didcot, who performed brilliantly at last night's competition. They did themselves and their communities proud, speaking about Unspoken Crises, the Colombian Sloth Trade and the Psychology of Music. So proud to be a part of the journey.'
Bake Sale and Christmas Jumper Day
Maths Department
Kahoot Quiz:
Y10 have been using their Chromebooks to create a Kahoot quiz to help with Maths revision prior to their upcoming exam.
Senior Maths Challenge:
Congratulations to all the sixth form students who entered the Senior Maths Challenge on 7th November. As we have come to expect there were some excellent results and particular congratulations go to our award winners: David Tillin, Rachel Davies, Lucy Butcher, Harvey Williams, Tyler Lawrence, Charis Sung, Yufan Kambang, Kerry Morgan, Mark Seelig, Constance Simmonds, Fraser Sanders, Chris Walsh. Charis and Tyler did so well that they were invited to take part in the next round – we are eagerly waiting for their results.
If you fancy a go here is Question 1 from this year’s paper: answer to this at the foot of this newsletter, and you can find all the questions at http://www.ukmt-resources.org.uk/SMC17.html
TALKS AND TRIPS
Nuclear Institute Talk
On 15th November, UTC Oxfordshire was very privileged to receive a visit from the President of the Nuclear Institute, Neil Thomson. He had been invited by Paul Corrie to talk to many of our sixthformers, and we were delighted to host such a prestigious speaker. Neil gave insight into the design of nuclear reactorsand how they work, he talked about where EDF energy has its nuclear reactors and he then explained possible entry points and careers in the nuclear energy.
Dr Mehdi Askarieh, Chair of the Institute's Central England Branch, followed on with an overview of the Institute and how it operates, particularly for students and younger employees. Neil and Mehdi were accompanied by Dick Francis, Education & Training Officer for the Central England Branch.
This link has details of a degree apprenticeship in Nuclear Engineering, closing date 28th January: https://www.findapprenticeship.service.gov.uk/apprenticeship/-213541
Apprenticeship Assessment Centre Training
Steve Houseman is a UTC Oxfordshire governor and a senior leader at the Mini plant. In November, Steve led 2 sessions for our sixth form engineers to learn more about the assessment centre selection process. Steve challenged each group to complete a timed 'planks' construction task while other students became observers and learnt what to look for in a successful team member. Y12 student, Esmee Haigh, said, "that was a LOT of fun and surprisingly hard."
Visit to The National Museum of Computing
Friday 17th November saw our cohort of Y12 A-level computer scientists making a trip to Bletchley Park, a fascinating and educational place. They were hosted by Claire Marston, Head of Learning, who told interesting anecdotes as well as demonstrating many of the systems. The pace of technological change and consequent impact on the computer industry and society is often a topic of discussion in class, however actually being able to see working examples of just how far systems have developed over the past seventy years was eye-opening for the students.
Particular highlights were demonstrations of Tunny and Colossus which worked together during WWII to decipher the Germans most complex cipher produced by the Lorenz machines. Colossus is a recreation of the world’s oldest large scale electronic computer. We also saw a recreation of EDSAC, one of the very first programmable electronic computers (with memory) built at Cambridge University, which weighs in at a mere 2 tons and consumes 11kW of power. All of this for significantly less processing power than a smartphone.
Perhaps the star of the show was the Harwell Dekatron computer built by AERE, Harwell in the late 1940s. This is currently the world’s oldest original working computer and apparently the Guinness Book of World Records either visit or phone up every year to check that it is still working so that their latest edition is accurate! The scale and speed of the Harwell Dekatron means that individual registers and the accumulator are visible and it is possible to follow the CPU’s calculations as lights whizz around the vacuum valves. The ‘Von Neumann’ architecture used in the Harwell Dekatron remains the basic architecture of the latest processors from companies such as Intel and ARM – it was very instructive to see it in operation on a ‘human scale’. Shaun Preston commented that “It has really helped me understand how computer architecture works”.
In the afternoon, there were two hands-on workshops. The first was an investigation of the famous Turing Test of artificial intelligence (AI) that involved programming responses to a series of questions that might convince a person they were talking to another person rather than a computer. AI is playing an increasing part in everyday life and this was a thought-provoking glimpse into the future. For the second workshop the students enjoyed some programming 1980’s style by coding the game Snake on a BBC Micro in BASIC followed by a competition to obtain the highest score or to modify the program to make ‘improvements’. The museum maintains a leader board of highest scores (on the unmodified program) from educational establishments - Luke Lynch successfully upheld UTC Oxforshire honour by placing the school in the top three.
This trip complimented the ‘Cipher Challenge’ visit made last year to the rest of Bletchley Park by those students who were with the UTC in Year 11.
Harwell Dekatron
EMPLOYER PARTNERS
Air Products Demonstrations
Nuvia Taster Day
Nuvia is an engineering company which specialises in highly regulated industries such as the Nuclear industry. This month they gave an opportunity for Year 11 students to attend an Engineering Taster Day at their building on the Harwell campus. Our students Teegan Taylor, Max Doran and Max Butcher got involved in workshops, interacted with Nuvia's current Apprentices, and found out more about the opportunities available to them at the company.
The activities include classroom-based, practical activities which were designed to get them thinking about some of the theories associated with Nuclear/Mechanical/Civil /Process Engineering. They also had the chance to complete tasks using the company's CAD software, as well as gaining advice on CV writing and interview skills.
The staff at Nuvia sent us the following email afterwards: 'Just wanted to let you know that the students that attended our Taster Day were great; they got involved, asked questions and were a credit to the school – thank you to the UTC for allowing them to attend the event'. We are very grateful to Nuvia for facilitating such a good day and to Teegan, Max and Max for being such great ambassadors.
VISITORS
Zaineb Mirmalek-Sani
COMMUNITY NEWS
We've been asked to share the following...
Charity Secret Santa 2017
Courtney Hughes is running her Charity Secret Santa in Didcot again this year. At the Didcot First Business & Community Awards a couple of weeks ago Secret Santa won the overall prize for the Best Fundraising Innovation or Campaign category and was one of the finalists in the Raising Awareness category. Courtney also won an Individual Outstanding Achievement Award for her charity work. Many congratulations to Courtney (and also to Andrew Baker who also received an Individual Outstanding Achievement Award for his Play2Give charity work).
Charity Secret Santa is collecting toys, books, new clothes, vouchers, games, crafts, non-perishable food, toiletries and other essentials to distribute to the sick and vulnerable in South Oxfordshire. We have been collecting these in school and there are also drop off points in Cornerstone, Soha Housing, K&K Printing, and South & Vale Offices on Milton Park. charitysecretsanta@live.co.uk
Didcot Army Cadets
SCHOOL INFORMATION
Reminder about our Medical Policy
Please note that in line with recommendations from the Department of Education, we are implementing the following medical policies and procedures. Medicines are only to be administered at school when it would be detrimental to a student’s health or school attendance not to do so. No child under 16 will be given prescription or non-prescription medicines without their parent’s written consent (a medication consent form is available on request), or given medicine containing aspirin unless prescribed by a doctor.
Medication, e.g. for pain relief, is never administered without first checking maximum dosages and when the previous dose was taken.
We only accept prescribed medicines that are in-date, labelled, provided in the original container as dispensed by a pharmacist and include instructions for administration, dosage and storage (the only exception to this is insulin which must still be in date, but will generally be available to use inside an insulin pen or a pump, rather than in its original container).
Please inform us immediately if a student’s healthcare needs change.
Student Absence and Appointments
School Drop Off
In the interests of safety, would parents dropping off/picking up students from the UTC please either pull into the layby or drive round to the car park. On most days there are plenty of spaces in the car park. PLEASE WILL BOTH CAR DRIVERS AND PEDESTRIANS TAKE EXTRA CARE NOW THAT ASDA IS OPEN: there is a great deal more traffic and the road between the store and the school is no longer a 'dead end'.
What a Team!
Latest News
Senior Maths Challenge Answer
UTC Oxfordshire
Email: admin@utcoxfordshire.org.uk
Website: www.utcoxfordshire.org.uk
Location: UTC Oxfordshire, Greenwood Way, Harwell, Didcot, OX11 6BZ, United Kingdom
Phone: 01235 391587
Facebook: facebook.com/utcoxfordshire
Twitter: @utc_oxfordshire