Y8 Talk - BBC App Designer Sarah Willoughby

Ever wondered what the people who design of some of the UK’s most popular Apps are really like? Speculated on who decides the content of BBC News or how Apps personalise content on BBC sport? Well, this week Year 8 pupils were given the opportunity to meet and question one of the senior members of the BBC App design team.

Based in Manchester’s Media City, Sarah Willoughby is a Senior Business Analyst. In essence her job, as a digital project manager, is to build Apps for the BBC, primarily BBC Sport and BBC News, but also BBC iPlayer, BBC Weather and CBeebies. Sarah explained the complex considerations required in App design such as working with data providers to access data such as league tables, providing up-to-the-minute sports’ results, provision of on-demand service and personalising content for each individual user. She also explained multi-variant testing, the practice of conducting experiments on up to 4 million users per week, to test different versions of apps, the results of which are then analysed to ensure the best version of each App is rolled out to customers. Our thanks to Sarah – the pupils certainly ‘app’reciated her valuable time. 

Mrs Doran 

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Year 7 Talk - Aileen Wiswell MBE

Y7 pupils were given a glimpse into the world of Westminster, politics and the inner working of the civil service this week, when Aileen Wiswell MBE led a fascinating virtual talk. Aileen, who regularly attends Number 10 Downing Street, is a Cabinet officer in charge of Estates for Westminster.  Her role is to support the agenda of any political party holding office, through managing Government owned property such as the Capital building in Liverpool to the Ministry of Defense.  Aileen is currently responsible for the logistical and strategic agenda to address the current North/South divide within the civil service.

Following a superb explanation of the vast array of career opportunities available within the Civil Service, which is the biggest employer in the UK, Aileen took the pupils on a whistle stop tour of her own varied, and immensely impressive, career. Aileen famously started her profession working in Liverpool, having worked in every one of the 129 job centers in the city. After celebrating 40 year in the civil service this year, Aileen discussed the pros of working in the profession. Aileen has travelled the world, been awarded an MBE for her immense charity work and has danced down the stairs of Number 10, just like in the film Love Actually.

I would like to thank Aileen for her informative and motivational talk, and the fabulous insights into the real people working to help the government of the day develop and implement its policies.

Mrs Doran

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Primary More Able Workshops

Over the past month, selected pupils in Year 3 and Year 5 have been attending weekly sessions to further develop and extend their understanding in English and Mathematics.

In English, they have covered topics such as euphemisms, conundrums, language riddles, compound words and personification. In maths, topics such as factorial function, algebra, consecutive factorials and semi-primes, as well as a range of logical reasoning problems were also covered. The tasks are designed to teach resilience, encouraging pupils to persist in finding and to practice the skills of approaching problems from different directions.

Led by Mrs Doran and Mrs Hoare, modern technology is utilised and these virtual sessions are offered.

Mrs Doran

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Boarders’ Friday Night Feast of Sport and Entertainment

The boarders enjoyed a Friday night of physical activity and entertainment at the College. Firstly, they were put through several difficult drills in the fitness suite. This one hour of hard-working exercise ended with all students participating in the Spartan Drill. The most pleasing aspect was the effort from the students who never gave up and worked hard on all the tasks. Later, that evening the boarders had some House fun with several rounds of Bingo. There were many laughs along the way and students picked up many prizes to end the evening on a high.

Mrs Latham (Head of Boarding) and Mr Cook (Director of Sport)

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Medical Mavericks

Year 10 and Year 11 pupils were wowed this week when a real doctor delivered a fascinating talk about careers in medicine. What was particularly unusual was Tom’s use of real medical equipment, which he demonstrated live.

Tom demonstrated a pulse Doppler that would be used by a vascular scientist to listen to the cardiovascular system and health of an artery – including triphasic, diphasic and monophasic pulses.

He used an ultrasound on himself to view carotid artery and to compare the size of arteries and veins. He demonstrated live an ECG, used by a cardiac physiologist, to explain how the health of a heart beat can be measured by observing the wave patterns. What was particularly fascinating was that Tom was diagnosed with Covid three weeks ago and was still suffering from symptoms. This was picked up in his ECG with unusual heart beats detected. The spirometer test he conducted live also showed his lungs were working at only 60% - which just shows what an impact covid can have on the health of a young and otherwise very healthy individual. The fact these tests were conducted live was so intriguing and relevant to the pupils. The infrared blood scanners were also fascinating. Designed by medical engineers, the infrared blood scanner projects a real-time video of a person’s veins projected onto their skin – vital for looking for veins to allow patients to give blood.

To end the live presentation, Tom played a video of him using an ultrasound to find out what happens to your bladder when you go to the toilet and a video of his bronchoscope. Students were able to see how his voice box works and his tracia all the way to his lungs.

The talk, organised by Mrs Doran and financed by the Wilton Trust, was open to all pupils in Year 10 and Year 11. A truly fascinating and unique experience to demonstrate the wonders of the medical field.

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Huge Participation in After School Sport

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