Cambridgeshire Educational Partnership brings second Innovation Day to King’s Ely

King's Ely was delighted to welcome pupils and staff from four of its partner schools along to an action-packed Innovation Day.

The day, which oozed creativity and entrepreneurial skills, involved dozens of Key Stage 2 pupils from King’s Ely Junior, Isle of Ely Primary School, Mepal and Witcham Primary School, Robert Arkenstall Primary School and Ely St Mary’s Junior School, all of which are members of the Cambridgeshire Educational Partnership.

The Innovation Day, entitled ‘What’s your mission?’, took place at King’s Ely’s Old Palace and was delivered by Lucy Etchegoyen and Veera Bukshi, both Technology Consultants at global firm, Accenture UK, and Andrew Moss, who is a King’s Ely parent and Managing Director of Horizon Retail Marketing Solutions.

Celia Etchegoyen, Director of Outreach at King’s Ely, said: “Pupils were introduced to design thinking and learnt about the theory behind methodology. They were shown how it has been used by different companies to create new interesting products and experiences. The ideation part of the day was designed to create a response to the mission and included a brainstorming session, concept poster creation and sketches of their ideas.

“The collaborative element of the day saw pupils working together in small groups to each come up with an idea for a sustainable company with a clear mission. At the end of the day, each group pitched their ideas to a panel of judges. Very many thanks to Accenture UK and Horizon Retail Marketing Solutions for driving this initiative and to Andrew who sourced ex-display items of electronic equipment from Dixons to give to each student as a gift. These certainly went down a storm! It was fantastic to see the students respond so well. Lucy, Veera and Andrew together delivered an inspiring and innovative day to raise the aspirations of young people in East Cambridgeshire.”

The Cambridgeshire Educational Partnership has been formed to bring together school headteachers, education professionals and young people from across Cambridgeshire. King’s Ely, Ely College and Littleport and East Cambridgeshire Academy joined forces to set up the organisation last autumn, but since then more than a dozen other local primary and secondary schools, from both the independent and state sectors, have come on board.

The aim of the partnership is to work together for the mutual benefit of all pupils, and to provide opportunities for students from schools within the partnership to gain access to a variety of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths), MFL (Modern Foreign Languages), Arts, Sport and Enrichment activities. To find out more about the partnership, please contact Celia Etchegoyen by emailing CeliaEtchegoyen@kingsely.org