Hugh Tunstall College of Science: STEM Pledge to Industry

Message on behalf of George Ritchie MBE, Chair of the NEPIC Skills & Education Thrust Team

Dear All,

At the last NEPIC Leadership Team Meeting in December 2016, James Robson MBE introduced Jonathan Heath, Deputy Head Teacher of High Tunstall College of Science (HTCS). Jonathan delivered a presentation about the school’s STEM activities and requested support from industry.

From the meeting, and as Chair of NEPIC’s Skills & Education team, I took on the action to examine the opportunities with the school and how our sector may assist them – especially those employers / companies in a reasonable radius with the school.

I have met with Jonathan, visited him at school and had numerous exchanges about how we can support HTCS from an industry perspective, plus aid how the school could focus with industry in the region. From my review I believe we, the industries / employers in NEPIC, could and should look to support HTCS as there are many STEM synergies present.

Full details are available via the enclosed reference materials to share with you.

HTCS Manifesto Supporting Letter
HTCS STEM Manifesto
HTCS STEM Lecture
HTCS Industry Connect Form

You will see that the school have produced an overview entitled “Manifesto Supporting Letter”. The overview is in 2 sections – an introduction to HTCS followed by 3 opportunities to complement their STEM Manifesto. In addition, a Sponsorship flier for the STEM Lecture and Industry Connect Form are also included.

There are many opportunities for employers in our sector to support HTCS moving forward and hopefully employers can embrace these opportunities as this school is committed to making a difference and working more closely with STEM employers to ensure they are teaching the correct things for all our futures.

I discussed at length with Jonathan the STEM Lecture Sponsorship opportunity and, whilst they would like one employer to be the main sponsor, they would be more than happy if say two or three employers came together to sponsor the event and split the £5K sponsorship between them. HTCS are particularly keen to get sponsorship agreed as soon as possible so that they can get publicity and marketing rolling etc., so this does need to be actioned now.

In addition, as you see from the supporting letter from Jonathan, there are many, many other ways to help the school, so please consider each of them and see where you are best placed to support.

I do urge you all to give this some very serious consideration as a NEPIC cluster and agree to help the school to achieve its aims and objectives for young people and our industry and our region.

I am aware just how difficult it is budget wise for employers to support sponsorships, but we all do have a corporate social responsibility as part of our business operations in the region and this opportunity does fit a lot of our employer’s needs.

It was a good exercise for me to follow this up after our last Leadership Team meeting and certainly helped to look at how some schools in the region are very serious about connecting with employers, with HTCS being one of the forward thinkers.

If any of our NEPIC employers feel inspired to explore how to aid the school going forward, which I hope many are, please get in touch directly with Jonathan Heath Deputy Head High Tunstall College of Science (email jheath@hightunstall.hartlepool.sch.uk and mobile phone 07746 175922). In addition, please keep me informed on behalf of NEPIC S&E team.

Thank you in anticipation.

Very best regards,
George

George Ritchie MBE
Chair, NEPIC Skills & Education Team
Associate Director – Consultant, Px Group

Opportunity 1 – Creating a Workforce for the Future

The purpose behind Industry Connect is for us to be able to map opportunities for our students from years 7 to 11 so that every individual will have access at least 10 Industry Connect activities during their time with us at HTCS. If you would like your organisation to be involved in this programme then please complete the attached Industry Connect Form highlighting the numbers of hours or days that you could commit to any activity across a year. We can then collate this information and build a comprehensive programme for students from across the STEM sector. We will work with you to integrate your offer into our curriculum so that our students genuinely develop a set of skills that help prepare them to be your employees in the future.

Opportunity 2 – Annual STEM Lecture Sponsorship

Over the last 2 years nearly 2000 young people have been inspired by internationally renowned speakers at our Annual STEM Lecture. Most recently Lord Professor Robert Winston spent the day with us in school and then delivered a lecture followed by Q & A to students from schools that joined us from across the region. The event received very good media coverage across the North East including a segment on ITV regional news.

In order to sustain the delivery of these fantastic events we are now seeking STEM Industry sponsorship. Our 2017 Lecture will be delivered by Professor Marcus du Sautoy from the University of Oxford and details about the benefits of sponsoring the lecture can be found on the attached STEM Lecture Sponsorship flyer. We estimate that the entire cost of the lecture will be in the region of £13500 and we are hoping to attract up to £5000 from either a single or multiple sponsors. This is the biggest event of its kind in the region.

Opportunity 3 – Creating a State of the Art STEM Centre

In September 2019 High Tunstall will move into its brand new building and we see this as a fantastic opportunity to develop a state of the art STEM Centre in partnership with industry. Our vision is to develop a suite of 5 high spec laboratories that are designed and equipped to help prepare our students for careers in the areas of need that are forecast in the region over next 5 to 10 years. The resource is one that would be shared with the community and industry so that we can collectively support the development of the future workforce for our region. Our STEM Manifesto provides a little more detail, but please do not hesitate to get in touch if you would like to explore this exciting opportunity further.

Supporting information:

HTCS Manifesto Supporting Letter
HTCS STEM Manifesto
HTCS STEM Lecture
HTCS Industry Connect Form