Calderhead High School’s Robotics clubs have gone from strength to strength.
Our senior team recently participated in the VEX Robotics “In the Zone” competition at New College, Lanarkshire. Ceinwyn and Jason in S6 built an excellent robot which was required to carry out tasks such as stacking cones, scoring goals, and parking. They were narrowly defeated in the final and won second place. Well done!
Our junior robot creators took part in the recent Tomorrow’s Engineers EEP Robotics Challenge at Forth Valley College, which was one of twenty five regional heats. One hundred and forty young people aged between eleven and fourteen, organised into teams from local high schools, took part in the Challenge. Each team had learned how to build, program and control autonomous LEGO robots to complete a series of aviation themed missions. Our pupils built their robots during lunchtime Lego Robot club sessions and worked out how to complete the missions. On the day of the competition, they also had to research, design and present their own solution to a contemporary engineering problem faced by STEM professionals in the aviation industry. Everyone had a great time and well done to all who took part.
S1 pupils were involved in an interactive ‘teacher pathways’ quiz where they worked in small groups to identify a teacher based on clues about their journey through school to starting their teaching career. The pupils were interested to find out that some teachers did not achieve as well at high school as they might have expected. The pupils also realised that the journey into education doesn’t always happen immediately after school and university and that many members of staff started their teaching careers after a number of other jobs.
In the afternoon a traditional Careers Fayre took place with 24 providers setting up stalls with a vast array of information, prospectuses and freebies. Pupils were able to spend time speaking to staff from a variety of local and national firms, training providers and Further and Higher Educational establishments to gain knowledge about the entry requirements and recruitment process.
We were extremely impressed by the breadth and variety of talent demonstrated by our pupils who performed at the ‘Calderhead’s Got Talent’ show which took place on 18th December, including the prefect choir (who sang a moving rendition of “Do They Know It’s Christmas?”), the brave seniors who braved their own “Bush Tucker Challenge” and many more fantastic acts. The eventual winner was the talented pianist, S4 pupil, Heather, who performed her own composition to great acclaim. The money raised from this event and the Christmas Jumper day has been donated to the Beatson Cancer Charity.
