News from the School
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Dora Love Prize won by Colchester County High School for Girls
(from Colchester Gazette)
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A prize-winning case study focusing on the plight of women detained in a concentration camp during the Holocaust was described as “exemplary” by competition judges. Colchester County High School for Girls scooped the top award in this year’s Dora Love Prize. The accolade was set up in 2012 in the name of Holocaust survivor Dora Love. It asks secondary schoolchildren to develop projects which link the genocide to examples of intolerance and discrimination displayed today. The Holocaust, carried out in Europe by the Nazis during the Second World War, saw the systematic extermination of some 11 million people due to their ethnicity, religion, beliefs or sexuality.
(left: Frank Bright, Holocaust survivor, with students)
Colchester County High School students shaped their project around a study of the women-only concentration camp Ravensbrück. The school’s presentation explored the treatment of the women in the camp and how those stories related to issues faced by contemporary women, such as domestic violence. Their submission included a mannequin dress in the style of those worn by the women of Ravensbrück, but embroidered with headlines from
current newspaper stories about female discrimination. In the year ending March 2019, around 1.6 million women in England and Wales were subjected to domestic violence.
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The students created a website and hosted community events focusing on their chosen subject. They fought off competition from 15 other schools to clinch the prize. Judges described their entry as “exemplary”.
Speaking after the event, Professor Rainer Schulze, who founded the prize in memory of Dora Love, said: “The enthusiasm, the creativity and the commitment shown in all projects were truly amazing and inspiring. In truth, all the projects were winners because they showed we all stand together with people who are discriminated against.”
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High-Flying Colchester School is one of the Worst-Funded in Essex
(from Colchester Gazette)
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A high-flying Colchester school is one of the worst-funded in Essex, new figures have revealed. The huge disparity in funding per pupil across Essex’s 77 secondary schools has been laid bare in new Government data. Figures from the Department for Education found Colchester County High School for Girls, which regularly tops exam tables, receives £4,668 per pupil. It has 780 pupils. It was only beaten in the list of poorly funded schools by Saffron Walden County High School, which was allocated the lowest per pupil sum of £4,622. Stanway School was the fourth worst funding getting £4,714 per pupil. In contrast Clacton Coastal Academy, which has 1,120 pupils, received £6,809 per pupil - that’s among the three highest amounts awarded to schools in the county. Colchester Academy, which has 745 pupils, received £5,864, putting it in the top ten
for best-funded schools. It was revealed the most funding per pupil went to Basildon Upper Academy, which received £7,169. The new figures cover all state-funded maintained schools and academies in England.
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(left) Gillian Marshall, headteacher, and Sixth Form pupils
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Schools funding comprises budgets set by the local authority alongside cash from Government grants. A national funding formula, first announced by the Government in 2016, will replace more
than 150 different formulae with one nationwide system. According to the School Cuts campaign, which is backed by the National Education Union, Colchester County High School for Girls, is facing a £348,086 shortfall this year, which equates to a loss of £446 per pupil.
Executive principal Gillian Marshall said: “For a number of years, alongside other local education leaders, I have been making representations about the impact of year-on-year school funding reductions. “The significant cuts faced by all schools across the country continue to be a cause of concern. At our school we work continually to develop strategies to minimise the impact on curriculum delivery and student experience. It is pleasing the extent of this challenge has now been recognised.”
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Last year, Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced a reform package which would see £14 billion invested in primary and secondary schools up to 2022/23. There was also a further cash boost schools which fall below what will become the minimum amount – £4,000 per primary pupil and £5,000 for secondary children. The Department for Education spokesman said: "We recognise schools have faced cost pressures in recent years - that is why we are levelling up funding to ensure all schools have the right investment to deliver an outstanding education. This means that every school in the country will see per pupil funding rise at least in line with inflation next year."
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Longitude Explorer Prize
(from Essex County Standard)
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A group from CCHS has secured their place in the Longitude Explorer Prize. The team developed Project Assist, an AI enabled sensor network which tracks vulnerable elderly people in their home. (AI - Artificial Intelligence, ie, robot!) It then alerts a family member if something is wrong, for example, if their relative has had a fall.
The programme also communicates with the vulnerable person during times of crisis via speech recognition and text to speech to reduce panic. It will connect them to a professional who can give advice and contact emergency services with all the details.
The team will do battle with 39 other groups aged between 11 and 16. They will receive resources and expert mentoring to develop their concept ahead of a Dragons’ Den style pitch later this summer. The prize recognises tech solutions to some of the big challenges of our time.
The winning team will be awarded £25,000 for their school or youth group in July. Three runner-up teams will each also receive £10,000.
Science Minister Amanda Solloway said “It is incredible to see how these finalists have thought up innovations to tackle global challenges, from devices that detect health problems to robots which can remove plastic waste from our seas. Technological innovation is important to grow the UK economy. We are supporting young people to pursue careers in this area through schemes like the Longitude Explorer Prize”.
(With the Covid-19 situation it is not clear whether this prize will go ahead with the Dragons’ Den format but we wish the team well and await further news.)
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