Expanding Business & STEM Opportunities In School
Chris Hillidge
Director of STEM for TCAT and
Assistant Principal
You will all be familiar with my in-school roles as they are relatively standard at a senior leadership level; They include quality assurance, CEIAG and line management of middle leaders to name a few. However, a significant part of my role is very different to any other senior school leader in the country.
Parts of my role are run like small business ventures which include managing various external contracts with challenging targets that bring a net income of several hundred thousand pounds into the school. The Science Learning Partnership and Computing Hub are DfE contracts to provide high quality teacher CPD across the region. The talented team that run this; Jenny Barrowcliffe, Amy Welsh and Hazel Kirk, are all very motivated to exceed the challenging targets that are set for us at a regional level and provide high quality and authentic staff development in STEM subjects.
Another innovative part of my role includes leading a digital fabrication and manufacturing suite on the school site that is open to the public and small business as well as students. It aims to build strong links between STEM industry and education, and managing the school’s considerable public facing STEM outreach program.
Warrington FabLab is the only one of its kind in the country, based in a school, and was set up to inspire creative people and entrepreneurs to turn their ideas into new products and prototypes by giving them access to a range of advanced digital manufacturing technology.
The idea was conceived by Professor Neil Gershenfeld at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). His idea was a simple one: to provide the environment, skills, advanced materials and technology to make things cheaply and quickly anywhere in the world, and to make this available on a local basis to entrepreneurs, students, artists, small businesses and in fact, anyone who wants to create something new or bespoke.
This was part of a larger strategy that sought to increase the opportunities for our students, teachers and local community to engage with the STEM industries and creatives in the wider NW region. The academy we serve is situated in an area of considerable socioeconomic disadvantage and the research showed that our students, despite a good education, were far less likely to progress into a STEM education and subsequent career. I wanted to establish ‘the network of support and contacts’ to ensure more equality of opportunity for children at our school.
“Children of a similar ability from disadvantaged areas are far less likely to progress onto high value STEM education and careers because they lack the network of support and contacts to suitably guide them. “
Engineering UK
There were several significant barriers when trying to plan a strategy for the Fablab development:
1. The Fablab had to be financially self-sustaining – it could not draw funds away from the school’s core budgets.
2. The Fablab required considerable investment to ensure it was equipped with suitable specifications of equipment to allow SME’s and start-ups to be involved.
3. The Fablab would run several different programs (strategic business units) that would be a mix of values-led or financially incentivised plans to ensure sustainability of the Fablab.
4. Allowing students and non-school adults to collaborate closely is challenging from a safeguarding perspective.
5. Funding and establishing a physical STEM centre with tech and flexible spaces that was accessible to both students and non-students. This would act as a hub for all the diverse aspects of the STEM provision.
Because this was a completely new venture that no other UK school had attempted, there was a considerable level of speculation required. Thankfully, Andy Moorcroft, the head at the time, realised the innovative nature of this project and supported it fully.
For those of you who are new to the school you might not realise some of the ground breaking projects the Fablab has led on that have had impact around the world:
- 3D printed prosthetics for children (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-england-merseyside-39225488),
- Ancient Egyptian artefacts scanned and printed (http://fablab.warrington.ac.uk/news.html),
- Electric vehicles prototyped (https://www.northernlightmotors.com/about-northern-light-motors)
During the pandemic we worked with NW Intensive care units to print oxygen supply valves that saved many lives (https://dcmsblog.uk/2020/06/how-snorkels-have-been-converted-into-life-saving-devices-for-covid-19-patients/) and co-ordinated the NW response to PPE shortages with fifty 3D printers running 24 hours a day in the STEM centre.
I’m incredibly proud of the teams of people that worked on these projects and not many teachers can say that they have had such a direct impact in what was a worldwide emergency.
The Fablab has recently re-opened with Ashley Diggle as creative director and we know that there are exciting times ahead!