• Fri. Mar 29th, 2024

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Students tackle challenge to prepare for their futures

Group 9Pupils with designs on professional careers have completed a gruelling challenge to help them prepare for the future.

Ripon Grammar School hosted its fifth Building for the Future competition to give second form students a taste of running their own business and experiencing different job roles.

In a report of the event, pupils Emma Adams and Elizabeth Calland-Brooke explained that ten groups of 12 students were tasked with designing a new classroom block for the school and pitching their ideas with a scale model and formal presentation to a group of expert judges.

“Pupils were competing to produce the most innovative, cost effective and environmentally friendly designs. The brief was made more challenging this year by the absence of a formal budget, so teams had to think hard about how best to offer value for money, whilst also anticipating the plans of their peers,” the girls wrote.

Pupils had to apply for specific job roles such as project manager, architect or interior designer, and write CVs and covering letters as part of the personal, social, citizenship, health and economic education (PSCHEe) programme.

Emma and Elizabeth explained: “Pupils were assigned roles suited to their qualities and skills by the careers department, who also gave detailed feedback on every individual application. The project then got under way with specialist sessions with adults who taught the pupils about their chosen role and imparted expert advice to be fed back to the groups.”

Two days later, after negotiating, designing, costing, buying and constructing, the groups prepared and delivered their presentations.

The panel of judges, which included a construction company manager, a designer, an aspiring architect and teachers, watched each presentation and decided on winners in different categories.

Group two, which comprised Oliver Stocks, Amy Dunn, Benedict Newman, Archie Beale, Annabelle Glegg, Abigail Hooks, Benjamin Haffenden, Francesca Pease, Billy Fletcher, Aisha Preece, Rafael Laybourne Ribeiro, Francesca Moulton and Georgina Webb – won the award for eco-awareness.

Students in group six – Annabelle Paterson, James Dobbs, James Chapman, Jasmine Marshall, Emma Adams, India Prendergast, Jonathan Bennington, Jessica Earl, Samuel Currass, Molly Cushing, Jude

Grimmer, Isaac Willoughby and Penny Baker – won the accolade for best team effort. The overall winners for the best design and pitch were Catherine Garnett, Romily Abbott, Will Wicks, Sam Robinson, Jhapin Shahi, Morgan Oakes, Liberty Robinson, Luke Dobson, Megan Inglis, George Peters, Sophie Holt, Yasmin Lennox and Rebecca Purll, of group nine.

By admin