Plantsbrook School RAF visit: The sky was the limit for pupils when the RAF paid an inspirational visit – and brought a fleet of high-tech mini drones with them.
The RAF’s Youth Engagement team visited the school, in Upper Holland Road, Sutton Coldfield in an event designed to inspire pupils’ learning around the key ‘STEM’ subjects of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics.
And the Year 7 and 8 pupils found themselves in control of flying drones as they learned all about programming and problem solving.
Youngsters learned how to use algorithms to programme the drones to fly along and above challenging courses set out on the floor of the auditorium at the school, which is part of the Broadleaf Partnership Trust.
Plantsbrook School RAF visit reaches out to girls
Sarah Dullea, Careers Adviser, said: “This was a really fun, hands-on event where the students had to use all kinds of skills like problem solving and critical thinking, as well as learning about programming.
“It’s great to see just how engaged the children are with a challenge like this – once they saw the drones take off, they were all keen to get involved.
“It was particularly pleasing to see the girls get a lot out of the event, because STEM subjects are so often considered to be male dominated in terms of careers. Hopefully, this will show them that there’s no reason why they can’t be involved in future.
Anthony Hyett, of Hyett Education, led the team that delivered the workshops for the RAF.
He said: “One of the things that the Royal Air Force is really trying to encourage is participation of girls in STEM, as well as students from black and minority ethnic communities because there’s a huge shortage of people from those communities going into the STEM fields.
“So, we’re just trying to open up those opportunities for all students and for disadvantaged students as well.
“Hopefully, we get students come away from this today who had never considered coding as a career and who think that it could be an option that works for them.”
Headteacher Jason Farr said: “The RAF visit was a brilliant exercise in challenging children to try something new, working as teams and getting to understand how coding and programming can be directly applicable in real life.
“They were very engaged in the event, which was both fun and educational. We’re immensely grateful to the RAF team for their time and sharing their expertise.”