We are delighted to announce that we have received a grant of $20,000 from an engineering company who are based in the UK called Arconic Foundation, who have a parent company in the US.

The teacher leading the project, Mr Marston, applied for the grant to support the student teams in the F1 in Schools competition, which is a prestigious engineering competition undertaken by students across the globe and supported by a range of international companies.

During the competition students learn to run an F1 team to race a model car powered by Co2 cartridges and develop project management, computer aided design and manufacturing skills, in addition to teamwork and communication skills.

The grant will purchase computers capable of running Fusion 360, which will allow a full teaching group to learn how to use the latest CAD software and how to prepare designs for manufacturing their cars. It will also be used to purchase a race system which is used in the competition to allow students to accurately test their protypes and therefore develop the most effective car design as possible.

Upper Wharfedale School teams have already tasted success; in 2017 they won the Entry Level class for Yorkshire and Humberside, and in 2018 won a place at the UK Finals. This funding will enable their success to continue for years to come as they will have the technology to improve their designs.