Still buzzing from the highs of the first Apps for Good Regional Event at Elstree UTC, the Apps for Good team set off from Euston station bright and early on a sunny Tuesday morning to catch a train to Birmingham. We travelled to Shireland Collegiate Academy in the West Midlands for the second ever Apps for Good Regional Event, which was run in partnership with QA.

Students spent the morning making final preparations in their teams for the Dragons’ Den pitching session which was due to take place later that day. Before the Dragons’ Den session began, however, our friends at QA stepped in to lead a workshop which encouraged students to think about effective communication and teamwork.

Shireland students talk to their team mates about their pitching strategy

During the workshop students took part in a number of role-playing activities which enabled them to get a better understanding of how to speak to different audiences (i.e. relatives, employers and friends), and which underlined the importance of speaking clearly and listening attentively.

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This year we are hosting a number of regional events across the UK in order to highlight the amazing work that is being done in Apps for Good schools and to give more students the opportunity to share their work with other members of our student, Educator and Expert communities.

On Thursday 23rd February students from Apps for Good schools braved the rain and gale-force winds to attend our first ever regional event. At the event, we gathered students from Elstree UTC in Elstree and Borehamwood and St Marylebone CE School in London to attend a few hands-on workshops and to showcase the tech ideas that they had been working on all year.

In the first workshop, students heard from Apps for Good Experts Brett and Louise, who work as consultants at Fluxx, about the importance of creativity, generating innovative ideas and the use of workflow diagrams. It was an insightful talk which was much appreciated by all of the students as well as their teachers.

“I really enjoyed the talk that Fluxx gave. It was a high bar talk that was delivered in a very clear and succinct way. My students told me that they found it incredibly useful and I even took some notes for myself!” David Zerafa, Teacher of Computer Science, Elstree UTC

Louise and Brett of Fluxx share words of wisdom with Elstree students

Elstree students start mapping out ideas during Fluxx’s workshop

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