Middleton school shortlisted in Educate Awards for dedication to STEM subjects

Cardinal Langley RC High School has been named in the Educate Awards 2020 shortlist.

The awards, in partnership with Copyrite Systems and Ricoh, is now in its ninth year and is the largest education awards in the North West.

At last year’s Educate Awards, Cardinal Langley took home the STEM Project of the Year Award - before it was renamed to Outstanding Commitment to STEM Award - after impressing the judges with its dedication to STEM (science, technology, engineering, and maths) subjects.

The Middleton high school has been shortlisted this year for the Outstanding Commitment to STEM Award, sponsored by All About STEM.

The news comes after the school also finished as a runner-up in the ‘STEM Award’ at the national Education Business Awards, which have been running for over two decades celebrating school achievements. 
 

Read more: Middleton school scoops top regional education awardPublished: 21 November 2019

Having won a number of national STEM competitions, the school is now integrating more theory and practical work into maths, science and English lessons so new Year 7 students get exposure to STEM early on in their school life.

Students from Cardinal Langley have made it to the national finals of the national rocket competition, ‘Race to the Line’, two years in a row. In pre-coronavirus times, three year seven students travelled to RAF Wittering to compete against the other finalists to design and build a rocket car to travel over 60mph. They finished second in the national competition which saw over 17,000 pupils apply.

In June 2019 Cardinal Langley entered national competition ‘Raytheon’, where students are given a standard set components and have had to build a fully functioning drone to compete in a series of challenges. They succeeded in winning the Manchester regional finals, which got them to the national finals at RAF Cosford Museum.

 

 

Read more: Cardinal Langley School takes part in national Quadcopter Challenge finalPublished: 18 November 2019

Funding has been secured by the school to run the ‘Arkwright Engineering Scholarship’ for the next five years. After being introduced in February 2020 it has seen 80 year nine students working in groups using a variety of materials to solve several theoretical problems. One of which making their own turbine and seeing how much energy it would generate. This work has resulted in students going to Liverpool University to work with companies and STEM ambassadors.

The school is also piloting a small project in collaboration with the Royal Academy of Engineering. This project is developing engineering materials for a greener future. This is to educate students about the choice of materials and where they have been sourced from.

Andrew Bridson, head teacher at Cardinal Langley, said: “This is such wonderful news in what has been a very challenging year. We’re really passionate about STEM learning for our pupils and recognition like this is a great reward for all the work our pupils and staff are putting in. Pupils continue to impress me with their achievements and I’m so proud of them. Hopefully we can bring the title back home again for a second year.”

Kim O’Brien, founder of the Educate Awards, said: “A huge well done to Cardinal Langley RC High School for being shortlisted in the Educate Awards 2020!

“It has been a really tough year for everyone and so we felt it was more important than ever to shine a spotlight on the heroes of the education sector and all the hard work that goes on in schools and colleges around the North West.

“The calibre of entries we received were incredibly strong - our judges will really have their work cut out when deciding on the winners.”