On Thursday 5th October we gathered in the auditorium at the school with colleagues, students past and present, and friends, to celebrate 10 years of our schools, The Studio and Liverpool Life Sciences UTC.
10 years looks like 3938 students joining us from 128 schools, and those students spending 14,040 hours doing industry-focused project learning. It is many national award-winning projects undertaken by students, and students going on to study at 109 universities. In the last 10 years, we have worked with 64 businesses, locally and nationally, to support the learning journeys our students go on here at the school, and to prepare them for careers where they can flourish.
Our head, Jill Davies, told us about some memories from that journey, from an inspection where she had to explain what coding was, to the schools working more closely under one leadership team in 2019, to the challenges of the Pandemic.
“Since 2019 it has been an absolute joy to lead two very special and amazing schools with some amazing highs and some challenging lows.” Said Jill.
“But the highs make it all worthwhile ……. Results days, competition winners, job offers, masterclasses, little cards and notes, alumni zooms, writing references and even a marriage across the schools!”
Jill also looked forward to the next 20 years and the changing nature of work. We believe we will see, and are already seeing, a hybrid model where the specialisms of both the UTC and the Studio will be the careers in demand. Diagnostic imaging, pharmaceuticals, drug development, biomedical engineering, data analytics and modelling will combine to be a powerhouse in the global economy.
We also heard from former students about how their time with us helped to shape their careers, including Adam Galloway who joined us in our first cohort of students and has now gone on to work for a local business and joined the Studio as a governor. Joe Benson, who studied at the UTC and returned as a consultant teacher, 9 years on from when he joined as a student, and also works with the police, fire service and military delivering medical training.
The evening also saw the launch of Leap Forward, a competition for students to submit a piece of writing about how they see the future of work and technology – from the future of AI, robotics and engineering. We can’t wait to see what they come up with and we’ll announce the winner in January.
Attendees also spent time looking at some of the amazing student projects taking place at the schools today.
A massive thank you to all our students, team, partners and parents for your unwavering support over the past 10 years. Here’s to the next 10!