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On Thursday, the 23rd of March, girls at Capital City Academy celebrated the progress of girls in STEM professions and to watch a documentary of girls around the UK interested in pursuing careers in STEM. Anne Marie Imafidon, the Youngest person to graduate from the University of Oxford and the first female scientist to be honoured by the Queen was in attendance inspiring the girls and establishing a STEMillions Club at the school.
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On the 13th of March, National Grid visited to guide and mentor Year 10 and 11 girls into STEM careers. This presentation was different from the previous two as the students were shown and were able to ask questions on how to work with their current grades in mathematics and science towards the many options available in technology particularly at National Grid. The international development leader and head of IT security was attendance and have invited the girls to a trip to the IT Security Centre of National Grid at Warwick. Capital was invited to watch the screening of 'Hidden Figures', a movie about three black women who were able to make outstanding progress at NASA in the 1960s when women or people of colour would have been unable to make these advances. About 400 girls from schools around London were in attendance and the event was intended to inspire girls at Capital to believe in themselves and pursue careers in Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths. Parents of some of the students were also in attendance. Writing to Mr Okoh in appreciation of the experience of watching the movie with her daughter. Mrs Zoey Morris (Tiana's Mother) wrote: "I really enjoyed the film (Hidden Figures), it was a privilege to be invited to attend with my daughter. It was very inspirational and showed the young ladies that it is possible to do things that seem impossible." On the day, there was also an innovative ideas competition held, and out of the 400 innovative ideas entered and out of 10 winners, Capital City Academy won three prizes which was an outstanding achievement for the school. The winners were: Louisa, Celeste and Tiana. Another great benefit of the trip was the Year 9 girls making a decision to choose Computer Science on the options evening held on the 2nd March which was a direct result of watching the movie, 'Hidden Figures'. Capital City Academy pupils also met and were inspired by Anne-Marie Imafidon MBE, who is the youngest person to graduate with a postgraduate degree from Oxford University. Ms Imafidon has agreed to come over to Capital City Academy to speak to girls at the school on the 23rd March. They will also be filming the event on that day as part of a STEM documentary. Celeste, 13, attends City Academy and attended one of our ‘STEM in a Day’ school trips at EY in 2016. She wrote a piece about her experience, including a poem!
We entered the shining tall building, and as we entered, we saw everything so organised and clean, looking as professional as the visit was itself. The staff looked lovely and were too. We had to create our own apps to replace school, to get a taste of what they do at EY. National Grid’s ngLabs were also there on the day and told us about wonderful things they work on – including virtual reality (VR). I got to use a VR headset and loved it so much that when I took it off, I saw that everyone else was already doing other things. Lost in Virtual Reality at EYThe view was amazing when we ate lunch, and everyone who came on the trip is very lucky to have met such wonderful people and have been to an amazing and astonishing place. The winners for the app won these lovely headphones, and we got some goody bags which I think is great, to show others how lucky I was to visit the EY. I hope them the best of luck with their life-changing hard work. EY, a building full of technology, With secrets that you will never see, We build our apps and discovered a lot, And the view was amazing and a really great spot, For the perfect work place for the nice staff, And with the VR, we had a great laugh, I hope the best for the glistering place, To have the world’s best discovered case. Link on Stemette's website: http://stemettes.org/blog/2016/11/17/celeste-a-lovely-school-trip-to-ey/ The girls designed apps, were taken on a tour of the Ernst & Young global consultancy headquarters, met and were mentored by female Lead partners at the consulting group, experienced the use of Virtual Reality in real life problem solving, were introduced to career opportunities for women in technology and designed apps solving real life problem tasks managed by the schools & education department at Ernst and Young. The Year 9 girls met, were mentored and inspired by young women who now work at Accenture and were informed of their challenges and experience making the choice in Year 9 which brought them to the STEM careers they work in. The girls were inspired and all made commitments to put more effort in their studies in Mathematics and Science. The Year 9's developed apps and prizes were won by two of our students for best designed Apps and presentation of their concept and ideas. The National Grid visited Capital City Academy again on the 31st of January to present and provide information on careers available in Information Technology to Year 10 girls. The students who attended were able to learn of technology jobs available at National Grid and were inspired by the career journeys of the women who spoke to them as well. The speakers stated how inspired they were by the interest Year 10 girls showed in the session and the quality of the questions asked when learning of the opportunities for women in STEM careers. Just about 80% of girls who attended indicated they were now seriously considering a career in IT and interested in participating in Internship opportunities with National Grid in the future. The Year 10 girls were also advised on subjects to consider at A levels and apprenticeships for those choosing that path. To support girls of all Year groups at Capital City Academy, an online portal has been designed and developed by National Grid labs for the students. This portal hosts a range of activities, documents and quizzes for the students to complete, along with interactive quizzes and leader boards. The National Grid have published their work with Capital City Academy on the following link: http://ournationalgrid.com/uk/girls2tech-programme-goes-live/# On the 19th January, women working with the National Grid, including the international development manager for the UK and US, visited Capital City Academy to meet with Year 8 girls and some parents. This event is the first of many which will be held every year with the aim of mentoring and inspiring girls to careers in STEM and technology, and is the first time they are working with any school on the project. Nationwide, the National Grid will work with five schools and Capital City Academy is the only school in London they are partnering with. On the day, the Year 8 girls solved real life social engineering problems faced at the cyber security department at the National Grid. The feedback was positive from students who overall showed a renewed interest in STEM careers on the questionnaires and the Senior Manager from the National Grid mentioning how impressed she was with the strategic approach the children had to problem solving; a key skill required at their company. This partnership between Capital City Academy and the National Grid promises to provide mentoring on careers in STEM from women at the National Grid through an online support platform, tracking of attainment and study support with meeting attainment for key students. The National Grid are also offering some girls from Capital City Academy opportunities to work at the National Grid headquarter offices during the summer holidays and Mr Okoh is now negotiating arrangements for placements at the National Grid for students in Key stage 4 and Sixth Form. This partnership with the National Grid will continue until the Year 2020 at the least. The next event will be on the 13th of March with Year 11. |
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