Science and Innovation Week Workshop
Our Sixth form Computer Science students had the privilege to participate in one of the technological workshops organized by the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (ULPGC) as part of the ‘Science and innovation week of the Canary Islands 2022’ event.
Félix Tobajas, a lecturer from the Telecommunications faculty of the ULPGC, and Paloma Monzón and Alicia Sánchez from Tinkers, came to our school to run a workshop about the Internet of Things (IoT).
Our students had the opportunity to understand the importance that this technology is playing in our modern world where everyday objects are rapidly becoming Internet connected and controlled.
As an example, he showed them the new ‘LPA park’ app function that, using an IoT device, allows users to find out the availability of blue zone car parks in the city in real time.
In the second part of the workshop, our students were given the opportunity to develop two simple IoT devices. The first one was a sensor programmed to send a message to their phones when a car was detected parking. This was similar to the one used by the LPA park app and the second IoT device was a GPS tracker.
The students were fascinated by what they had learned about the use of microcontrollers and sensors, and how easy it was for them to start their own IoT projects at home.
We hope that, thanks to this workshop, we’ve inspired some of our students to become future engineers in a world where the IoT will play a huge role in our day-to-day lives.
Guest speaker talk about Cloud Computing
We would like to thank Mr Rafael Fuentes, Head of the Innovation Department (CINO) at Redes System and Chief Technology Officer (CTO) at Voxia Comunicaciones, for visiting our school and giving our Year 13 Computer Science students a talk.
Our students learned about the important role that Cloud Computing is playing in the world market, with real-time examples shown during the presentation using AWS technology (Amazon Web Services). They were also introduced to the working procedures and tasks that a software developer has to deal with on a day-to-day basis.
We hope that our students found this talk inspiring and that it will help them grow beyond the scope of the curriculum, sparking curiosity about this field of study.
The Netherlands Universities Tour
Last June Y12 students enjoyed the first ever international universities tour to The Netherlands. Throughout the eight-day tour, students visited nine different universities including Research institutions, University Colleges and Applied Sciences institutions.
During the visits the students chatted to admissions teams, met current and former students, and learnt about life as un undergraduate student in the land of the tulips. While not visiting the universities, they spent a lot of time working in teams developing their soft skills through a range of activities organised by the Canterbury staff team.
The tour was a huge success, tremendously useful for all students, regardless of whether their final destinations will be The Netherlands. It goes without saying that we will be back to The Netherlands this coming June.
Wellbeing Coordinator
Last term 11 staff from across the Infant, Primary, Maspalomas and Secondary Departments successfully completed the training for the role of Wellbeing Coordinator (Coordinador de Bienestar). This year the role has been introduced by law into schools and other settings in Spain. At Canterbury School we have actually had this figure for many years in our Designated Safeguarding Lead in each department. Ensuring our children are safe and happy has always been a priority for us and will continue to be so. All the staff in school are required to have regular and up to date safeguarding training.
