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Photos: Gareth Jones Images © Big Bang North West
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The Big Bang North West took place on July 4th 2017, at The Exhibition Centre Liverpool, with thousands of young people from across the Liverpool City Region enjoying hands on, innovative activities from a wide range of STEM organisations. The BBNW helped them to discover more about the range of exciting STEM careers available in their local area, as well as understanding the role STEM plays in everyday life. As a Platinum Sponsor, Shaping Futures had our own area focused on HE/FE, with each partner institution hosting a stand displaying an area of STEM excellence from their institution. Stands included virtual welding (Riverside College), a sound and light mixing desk (Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts) and a Formula One Racing Car (Liverpool John Moores University). The event was a huge success, best summed up by a young person a ending the event who said “I wish I had 8 million eyes to see it all!” Shaping Futures also sponsored the award for STEM Club of the Year, which was won by The Presco School. A er the success of our partnership with All About Stem as MNCO, we were thrilled to be involved for a further year and look forward to continuing our relationship in the future.
The visit day was a great success with lots of the students commenting on how much they’d enjoyed visiting a university and city they had no prior experience of, and we were pleased to find so many of the students already excited about the next parts of the project. Following the summer break, we’re now gearing up to start our full suite of delivery with all priority schools in the autumn term. Please visit our website, www.shaping-futures.org.uk, to find out more about what we’ll be offering and to keep up to date with our activities.
Our Higher Education Conferences with Liverpool Hope University took place over two days in July, where six of our partner schools were invited to visit the Liverpool Hope campus to take part in an Introduction to University talk, campus tour and a university marketplace where Shaping Futures partners were represented. Over 200 students a ended and we were pleased with the positive feedback we received. Ruth Jacob, a teacher from Wade Deacon said “The pupils got so much from the experience, it was wonderful to see them engage with so many different Higher Education providers, marvel at the beautiful grounds and facilities of the university and begin to reflect upon the opportunities that await them”. The Through the Eyes of Boys project was launched in May 2018, working with male Year 10 students from 5 of our priority schools who are from a working class background. The programme aims to introduce them to concepts around Higher Education, support them with their Post-16 choices and equip them with the skills to support them in the next stages of their educational journey. The first event of the project was a launch event for parents and the young people to find out more about the project, followed by a visit to the University of Chester in July, where students toured the Parkgate Road campus and took part in an interactive pathways game to get them thinking about their options following Year 11. The students then explored Chester city centre on a walking tour, to experience an alternative university city and to get to know the other students on the project.
www.shaping-futures.org.uk