FEATURED STORY

A novel way to drive literacy forward

Students were thrilled when they were allowed out of the classroom to sit inside four brand new top of the range Audi vehicles recently.

The vehicles, with a combined retail value of more than £200,000, were driven to the entrance of the Academy as part of a literacy project for children to come up with their own piece of Audi merchandise.  Staff from Audi UK and their advertising agency, BBH, had already been to the school to give a history of the company and explain how their advertising campaigns are managed.

All 240 Year 9 students are competing in teams to design new products linked to the cars.  Ideas include a sensor that releases a fresh fragrance for sweaty footballers, gadgets to keep child passengers happy and novel accessories.

Academy Deputy Leader of Key Stage 4 English Miss Smith said: "As part of a growing partnership with Audi UK the company wanted to get involved in literacy.  After a lot of discussion we decided to run a competition for students to design a piece of merchandise for a target audience.  This involves making a presentation to Audi UK employees which will help to develop the speaking skills of students."

Louise Spackman, who looks after events at Audi UK's national headquarters in Blakelands, said that the company was delighted to be involved with the project.

She added: "We got involved with this as part of our corporate social responsibility programme.  Our aim is to show our 117 dealers across the UK the benefits of building good relationships with local schools so that they will consider doing the same.  The students’ enthusiasm is infectious and so we get as much out of this as they do!"

Around 20 employees from Audi UK are also spending regular time during their working week to have one-to-one mentoring sessions with older students.