Scalextric4Schools 2013

June has been busy.

It started with OFSTED, and although I’m not allowed to give our grading until the inspection findings have been ratified, suffice it to say that we are pleased with the outcomes.

Immediately after came the finals day for a competition whichTim organises called Scalextric4Schools. You may remember that I wrote about last years competition here. Again I was impressed by the quality of the entries from all over the UK, and some from further afield. Some travelled from Scotland, spending a couple of nights camping nearby. Others used hotel accommodation or set out really early this morning in order to arrive at the RAF Museum, Cosford by 9.30.

I must pay tribute to the commitment from students, their teachers and technicians, parents and minibus drivers which was tremendous. One teacher (Bob - his team won the overall even last year) had recently taken the tip off his finger in an accident at school, but still made the journey down from Scotland bearing a lovely gift of a box of shortbread. Without this hard work and dedication projects like this could not exist. And this is the tip of the iceberg and compared to the hours of preparation that has to take place in school prior to the event. It also has to be remembered that in the UK June 16^th was Father’s Day, so it meant that many of the teachers and supporting adults were spending time away from their own families.

Great to see the involvement of girls, although it would be fantastic if the fact that girls taking part in a CAD/CAM engineering project was so commonplace that it isn't worthy of special mention!

Tim is supported by Hornby, the manufacturers of Scalextric, who supply a large track and timing system, as well as a couple of enthusiastic people who travelled up from Margate to supervise and judge the competition. They also provided thousands of pounds worth of prizes. The staff of the RAF Museum and the Station Commander were all very welcoming and supportive. Other sponsors are companies selling Tim’s PTC CREO software, who give their time, skills and money towards promoting and judging the project. Chris and David, a couple of retired teachers, came to help out. Without the input of all of these individuals such competitions could not take place.

Last, but by no means least, were the fantastic group of students who excelled at the finals. They were a credit to their parents and their schools. The judging was very close and it was very hard to choose the winners because you know that some will go home disappointed. I just hope this will inspire the students to come up with even better innovations next year! This showed in that there were mostly different schools winning this year.

The students ranged in age from 11-17, although the marks are weighted to recognise this. One group of Y7 pupils from Skelmersdale who were very enthsiastic and entertaining could talk the hind leg off a donkey - me!

The team from Physics and Mathematics Lyceum 30, St Petersberg, Russia were very hard to beat, winning in two categories - best innovation, and fastest car for the Bloodhound challenge.

Fastest car around a track and best presentation were won by teams from Westbury in Nottingham, and the best overall team for 2013 was from Birches Head High School in Stoke on Trent.

They won large Scalextric sets, and each student who came to the finals day was presented with a Bugatti Veyron.

This car was designed for Hornby by Tom Malloy. PTC provided a paid internship for Tom when he was studying at Loughborough University - Tim is an alumni.   

Now, don't you wish you'd entered...

Racing again.... S4S

Sunday arrived and Gaynor had another race. Not a ‘race for life’ this time but Scalextric4Schools (S4S).

Tim manages the schools program for PTC a US software company. Each year he sets up the S4S competition, the finals of which were held at RAF Cosford, near Wolverhampton. Pupils use Creo/ProEngineer software to design, build and race their cars and prepare a presentation of their design and developments which they present to a team of five judges. The same software is used to design at Ferrari and Audi. Tim has his mid life crisis Audi  but is still waiting for the Ferrari...

A terrific amount of planning goes into the event which is sponsored by Hornby and a number of other companies. Tim is also fortunate to know some retired teachers (from his previus life as an OFSTED inspector) who are who are happy to lend a hand. Many of you involved in education will be wondering whether it is possible to be an OFSTED inspector and still have friends! This year Tom and I were also roped in to help.

I was given the job of race controller - a very grand title for someone who registered the teams, allocated  time slots for their races and presentations, and gave out the goodie bags. Tom was the official photographer/ gopher and Tim the Bernie Eccleston of the event!

The commitment of the pupils and teachers was tremendous. Some teams had come from Scotland and a couple of teams had even travelled from St Petersburg in Russia

The day was busy but very worthwhile. The RAF museum staff at Cosford were superb hosts and the standards set by the pupils extremely high. Every one of them was a credit to their schools and to themselves. The passion and the technical knowledge of the students was excellent with the Russian pupils able to present to the five judges in near fluent English.

The overall winners with their teacher Bob ...

Amidst all of the Government talk about falling standards these kids were doing stuff that I couldn't have done at their age, although like Mr Gove, I might possibly have been better at rote learning ...