Year 8 Technology Ambassadors participate in the IET Faraday® Challenge

On Tuesday 3 October 2023, six of our Year 8 students, who participate in our Technology Ambassador Programme, travelled with the Technology Department to Cokethorpe School to take part in the IET Faraday® Challenge run by the Institute of Engineering and Technology.

The Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) has worked for many years to encourage more young people to engage in the STEM agenda and to consider engineering as a possible career path. Students, as part of the Challenge, are invited to research, design and make solutions to a real-life engineering problem, with the winners on the day awarded a trophy and a place on the national league table.

Our Year 8 team worked effectively together to design and manufacture a prototype to a very strict criteria, without any teacher intervention. With the product intended for use by road users, it had to incorporate at least one functioning electronic element, and once complete the team presented it to everyone there on the day. Our students worked brilliantly as a team, assigning one another different roles, working to a budget and then prototyping a working outcome.

The students were a real credit to themselves and Burford School, with their focus and enthusiasm commented on and rewarded, achieving second place overall.