Atrium Studio School is Devon’s first school that specialises in the Built Environment. Atrium offers their students a contemporary education in areas including Architecture, Structural Engineering and Ecology alongside traditional GCSEs such as Triple Science, English Literature and Language and Maths.
The Studio School wanted to enhance their envisioned modern technology environment, and support their extensive syllabus by making ICT an integral part of learning. In addition, Atrium needed facilities that could support teachers and the Senior Leadership Team to become flexible and stimulating educators.
XMA won Atrium’s contract through an extensively detailed design, supply, delivery, install, testing and commissioning of the entire ICT infrastructure. By working closely with Atrium, XMA was able to successfully provide the School with a high quality service, state-of-the-art devices and support.
Atrium Studio School recognised the Value Added offering from XMA designed to support Education Impact. XMA’s offer included employer engagement to help contextualise and enrich the curriculum for their students, who benefit from the Studio School model’s blend of academic and vocational education.
Samantha Morcumb, Assistant Principal at the Studio School explains,
“Our students benefit from regular employer visits and employer led projects.
These are principally within the construction industry but our students wish to benefit from a broad understanding of industry and commerce. XMA interests us as an employer partner because they specialise in ICT for new-build schools and work closely with architects, mechanical, electrical and building contractors to create a great built environment.”
Samantha continues,
“In December 2016, we wanted our Year 9 and Year 10 students to gain insight and practical experience in the field of Logistics and Supply Chain Management, so we invited XMA and parent company Westcoast to come in and meet our students.
They were delighted to support and the Group’s Chief Operations Officer Andy Newberry and Guy Bates, STEM Ambassador volunteered to run a workshop. They suggested an overview of the businesses, logistics and supply chain career opportunities and a set of practical activities, so that our students got a real feel for the roles and skills involved in running efficient and environmentally considerate logistics services on a global scale.”
Luke, a Year 10 student with an interest in IT, supported XMA in running the activities with Year 9,
“Students learned about Westcoast and XMA’s supply chain, specifically for the UK assembly of Viglen PCs, workstations and servers. We then formed teams representing source countries, transportation and assembly. We had PC parts and had to bring them together using the transport options provided considering time, cost and environmental factors.
We learned how to assemble a PC, although I have personally done this before, so I coached the Y9s. We also learned that the UK is the world leader in cardboard box manufacture!
We use Viglen Omnino All-In-One PCs here at Atrium, so it was great to learn about how the business works that makes them.”
Sam Westaway, 3D Art and Design Teacher supported the day with Samantha,
“We worked with XMA prior to the day to ensure that the taught element and practical exercises helped embed life skills including critical thinking, communication and teamwork. Working with Andy and Guy of XMA helped us do that, because they were able to illustrate how important these skills are in their business, so they can serve their clients effectively and manage an innovative, ethical and environmentally considerate operation.”
Andy Newberry, Chief Operations Officer, Westcoast Ltd comments,
“We knew this was a great school and so different from my own school experience. It was terrific to experience the Studio School approach first hand and see the enthusiasm of their students to learn about careers and routes to university.”
Guy Bates, XMA Business Development Director and STEM Ambassador says,
“Having been a part of the original project team during the bid, design and implementation of the IT solution, it was wonderful to see and use the ICT solution we and the School designed together. Anyone who has presented to and collaborated with a large audience will know that you really want the ICT to work first time, so working with XMA partner schools in this way gives a great insight into the ease of use and functionality of the Solution, when you depend on it in front of a group of teenagers!”
Guy continues,
“It is particularly exciting to see how the Atrium ICT Solution supports Project Based Learning, together with flexible spaces at the School, which are designed to enable whole year group, whole class, group, paired and individual learning. It must be working well! Activities were a joy to deliver and the hospitality and attitudes of the students and staff were amazing!”
