Arnewood Wins the Faraday Challenge

The Arnewood School recently played host to a Faraday Challenge Day, inviting teams from our neighbouring secondary school, Highcliffe to join the fun. The Institution of Engineering and Technology’s (IET) Faraday Challenge enables students to become real-life engineers for a day as they research, design and build solutions to real engineering problems.

A total of 187 IET Faraday Challenge Days are taking place across the UK during the 2022-23 season. Up to six teams of local school students compete at each event to find the best solution to an engineering- related challenge.

This year’s challenge is in association with UKRI’s Future Flight Challenge and is based on future flight technology, but the brief for these young engineers is hidden in secrecy to avoid unfair preparation and research. Teams raced against the clock to solve a real-life engineering problem, putting their engineering and technology knowledge and skills to the test. The events aim to encourage more young people to study and consider exciting and rewarding careers in Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) by using creativity, innovation and problem- solving skills.

The Arnewood School is passionate about giving students new and exciting opportunities to engage in STEM subjects and get engineers of the future interested from an early age. Four teams from Arnewood and two teams from Highcliffe tackled the brief head on, demonstrating excellent team- work and adaptability. The day culminated in each team presenting their prototype and fielding questions. The competition was fierce, there was only a matter of 8 points between all 6 teams.

Ultimately it was Arnewood’s Team 6 that came out ahead and won the competition. Each team member in the winning group was awarded a prize and secured the trophy for their school. The Arnewood School is currently placed in the top 80 on this seasons national table. The top five teams from across the UK will receive an all-expenses paid trip to the national final in June 2023 to compete for a cash prize of up to £1,000 for their school.

Arnewood Headteacher, Mr Anderson visited students during the challenge and said, ”It was great to see the collaboration between students who were clearly enjoying the task. The school fully supports activities that can promote STEM subjects, contribute to the local community and inspire engineers of the future.”

Natalie Moat, IET Faraday Education Manager, said: “Students who take part in the Faraday Challenge Days this year will experience working as an engineer through hands-on and practical engagement with real-life challenges relating to UKRI’s Future Flight Challenge.

“There is a huge demand for new engineers and technicians, and we are confident that this will challenge young people’s perceptions of engineering and inspire the next generation by giving them an insight into the life of a real engineer and show them just how exciting and creative engineering really is.”