Author: gw09lewisdavid@glow

The higher computing classes were visited by 2 employees of JP Morgan to talk to the pupils about how the concepts taught in the class apply to their every day jobs.

These employees are ex pupils of Taylor High School and are now very successful members of the JP Morgan company in their technology section of the company.

Concepts covered were how agile methodologies are used to create ‘products’ for all other aspects of the global financial company. Discussions took place around ‘minimal viable products’, ‘sprints’, ‘client feedback’ etc.

All of this was done in an active learning environment using Lego to represent computer applications being created by the teams.

This year’s Taylor Tycoon event was as exciting as ever. All of S1 were put into groups where they had to devise a business plan. This plan had to decide what product to sell, what their business strategy would be, and what their company name, logo, and slogan would be.

They then sold their wares to the rest of the school.

The top 3 businesses were:-

Dough Delights from practical class 1P6

Ice Delights from practical class 1P3

Classy Cakes from practical class 1P8

The profits from this venture will go to a charity of the pupils’ choice.

Here are the winning business team – Dough Delights

The last two weeks have seen the games hall transformed into a bustle of financial activity where S1 businesses were selling their wares. S1 classes in ICT were working in groups to come up with a business plan, company name, logo and slogan. They then sold their products at lunchtime over a two week period. The takings are still coming in and the winning company will be announced soon.

Pupils have been very busy creating Christmas decorations using a variety of materials.

A massive thank you once again to Zeus Engineering, (part of the AGZ group), for providing the raw materials to allow this creative learning experience to happen.

This activity really helps the pupils showcase their technical skills in an engaging manner. Santa would be very pleased too.

Zeus, (Part of the AGZ group):-

• Linked-In – https://www.linkedin.com/company/agz-group
• Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/AGZ-Group-224398447950545
• Twitter –    AGZ Group@Group_AGZ
• Website – http://www.agzgroup.co.uk/

This week three S3 Business pupils travelled to BioCity Glasgow – Pioneer Group (Newhouse) to take part in this year’s NLC ‘Dragons Lair’ Enterprise Final 2024. They were accompanied by Mr Price (Business Education Teacher) and Mrs Johnston (Depute Head Teacher).

This is a superb initiative which introduces our young people to the world of business. Teams are responsible for coming up with a new and innovative idea for a product or service. The standard of entries was extremely high this year and the team were delighted that their business plan and idea for School Buddy had been selected as a finalist. The team scoring an impressive 93/100 by the business experts and commenting that it was a “Great business plan and a well thought through idea”.

On the day of the event the team pitched their business idea to the panel of Dragons and after all finalist teams had pitched their ideas, the ‘Dragons’ selected a winner. We did not win on this occasion, but the team can be extremely proud of their efforts in reaching the final. They were a credit to themselves, their friends and family watching and represented Team Taylor admirably.

A wonderful evening last night where we welcomed the parents of S1 and P7 to the school.

The faculty were able to explain what the pupils will be doing in S1 & S2 when they come to Taylor HS.

We set up many exciting tasks eg Showcasing pupils coding skills by allowing pupils, (and parents), to play the games the pupils have created. Cyber Security games helping to teach the importance of on-line safety. We also had the Spheros out to add an extra dimension to the evening.

We were having so much fun we forgot to take phots while the pupils and parents were in!!

2 ex-pupils who now work in JP Morgan, Kieran & Allan,  kindly visited the higher computing students to explain the process of creating software for a global finance company. Their experience in the workplace was shared using real life examples of how the theory taught in the class is used in the company. An active fun element was added by using Lego to represent code and models built to represent applications. The process of getting the models built showed the pupils the difficulties coders have when trying to extract requirements specifications from clients in the real world.  This was an inspiring event as Kieran and Allan spoke of how they have travelled the world with the company and they too once sat in the very same classroom as todays pupils.

For the third year in a row, Zeus Engineering, (part of the AZG Group), have very generously donated a significant amount of metal to allow us to run the National 4 and National 5 Practical Metalworking course for our senior phase pupils. This course has grown year on year mainly thanks to the hard work of the technical staff, the pupils and the kind donation from Zeus. We at Taylor High School are extremely grateful to Zeus for continually providing these essential materials.

• Linked-In – https://www.linkedin.com/company/agz-group

• Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/AGZ-Group-224398447950545

• Twitter –    AGZ Group@Group_AGZ

• Website – http://www.agzgroup.co.uk/

Below are a few photos of what the S5/6 Metalwork class have been up to this year.

They have produced some excellent work and are really enjoying the course.

Many thanks to Zeus engineering, (part of the AGZ group), for donating the metal to support the school in running this course each year.

Well done folks and I hope you have a lovely holiday.