How to Inspire and Equip Students With AI and Emerging Technology: A Corporate Partnership between News UK Tech and Fulwood Academy, Preston
Written by Nzinga Gardner
The Need
How can we support the next generation’s digital skills so they can better embrace the fully digital future? Education is one of the obvious routes to pursue, however the solution is far from straightforward. Societal inequalities such as wealth, health, gender and race are huge obstacles to overcome — and our state schools are on the frontline. This is especially true for those schools serving families lower down the socioeconomic ladder against a tide of budgetary and other resource constraints. This is the everyday reality of Fulwood Academy School in Preston, UK.
One answer to the problem is forging more corporate partnerships such as the one between News UK Tech and Fulwood Academy in Preston. The relationship began at the end of 2023 when the Chief Executive Officer of News UK, Rebekah Brooks, flagged the need at Fulwood Academy to Kirsteen King, Senior VP of Business Operations and Programmes, and asked her to help address it. The News UK Tech team had already built a strong reputation for their commitment to Corporate Social Responsibility having launched a number of successful STEM outreach programmes for schools, so were well-positioned and adept to support Fulwood Academy.
The Partnership
Fulwood Academy is a state secondary school with about 900 students and 5 year groups (Years 7–11, there is no Sixth Form), and with a high level of ethnic diversity with over 45 different languages spoken. Roughly 39% of students are eligible for pupil premium (the government grant given to schools in England to decrease the attainment gap for the most disadvantaged children), this is against a national pupil premium average of around 21%. The school is based in Preston which ranks as one the most deprived districts regarding income deprivation among children.
News UK Tech is the digital team behind big media brands such as The Times, The Sunday Times, The Sun, talkSPORT and Virgin Radio. They have locations based in the UK, Bulgaria, India and Croatia. They have dedicated teams for each of the News UK brands focusing on the front-end customer experience, underpinned by the platform teams who support the cross-brand capabilities.
The Story
The overarching objective was to develop, equip and inspire the 24 students in Year 9 (aged 13–14) and prepare them to be able to present back their learnings to a group of senior C-suite executives at the end of the six month programme. The team of 12 News UK staff went about achieving the objectives by firstly developing the students through enhancing their knowledge in the field of tech and developing other useful skills for life, such as critical thinking and presentation skills. To equip the students, the News UK Team exposed the students to current AI tools and demonstrated how to use them effectively, especially in terms of how AI can best be put to use in their particular school setting. The inspirational element was weaved throughout the programme, through the building of relationships with the facilitators, the exceptional quality workshops, and the highly interactive approach to the teaching: incorporating regular virtual sessions and three physical all-day sessions at the beginning, middle and end. Two of the three physical interactions took place at News UK’s impressive headquarters in London Bridge in central London.
One of the News UK facilitators on the day, Ruaridh McKay, recounted his experience on his first ever journey to Preston for the day-one kick-off event:
“We met at London Euston for the train into Preston’s impressive Victorian station, albeit on a miserably rainy day. Fulwood academy was a short taxi ride into the suburbs of Preston and when we arrived Mr McLinden, vice principal at Fulwood warmly greeted us. We were set up in a room where we could make our final preparations (I’m talking tea, coffee, biscuits) before we walked through the school’s thrumming lobby and upstairs to our classroom for the day. Our nerves were immediately put at ease when we met the group of excited and enthusiastic students we were going to work with. We kicked off the day by showing them pictures of our workplace before they guessed our brands from partially-obscured logos and matched our faces to our weird facts!
Adam (our AI specialist and former lifeguard) entertained the students with a quick overview of data science and AI followed by a fun competition which saw students sketching a random item while an AI bot guessed what it was. Next, the students put their thinking caps on as Emily and Jasmina encouraged them to think about all the ways AI could help solve problems that they faced each day — they had so many ideas. Stephen and I helped them refine their ideas, think about stakeholders and write some ‘user stories’ before they were introduced to wireframing. It was amazing how quickly the students took to new skills. Following lunch (provided thoughtfully by the school), Amarit guided students through a MoSCoW analysis (‘Must-have’, ‘Should-have’, ‘Could-have’ or ‘Would-Not-have’ framework) of their ideas while Mike Preston performed a live demo of coding with AI to really bring the possibilities to life for the students. All-in-all, a reminder of the brilliant things children can come up with after some guidance — and a push in the right direction.”
The interactive, physical sessions were critical to the incredible success of the programme as a great way to build rapport and enrich the overall experience for staff and students involved. By visiting each other’s respective school and work environments, not only would a lot of speculation, stereotypes and assumptions be challenged, but there were other benefits such as experiencing a new area of the UK and potentially developing relationships in the process. While the News UK tech staff (made up of UX Designers, Product Analysts, Business Analysts, Engineers and AI specialists) will have gained a deeper appreciation of the needs of the students through their school and surrounding environment, the students themselves gained amazing insight into corporate life, which people their age don’t typically get to see.
The virtual Zoom sessions were much easier to coordinate and deliver, and made use of online features so the virtual sessions were as fun and as interactive as possible. For example the group break-out room facility was enabled for more effective small-group discussions, and students were encouraged to use the chat box function. Over a course of several months, the students were guided through the following topics:
- Basics of AI: Understand the concept of AI and how it works.
- Prompt Engineering: Introduction to training AI bots and refining their output.
- AI Ethics and Privacy: Awareness of ethical considerations in AI and the importance of data privacy and security.
- Design thinking: Planning user experience around function.
- Collaboration and Communication: Effective teamwork and communication skills.
- Presentation Skills: Effective ways to share findings.
- Problem Solving: Critical thinking and problem-solving skills.
The Conclusion
After amassing almost 20 hours of physical and online workshops, delivered by 12 News UK Tech specialists over 6 months, the students were ready to demonstrate their new skills and present their learnings. The event finale took place back at the News UK headquarters in London in the impressive executive-level boardroom suite and was attended by C-Suite executives at the end of April, 2024. A judging panel was pulled together composed of Fulwood Academy Trust Sponsor Sir Charles Dunstone, COO of News UK David Dinsmore and Director of Innovation Claire Garlick and Chair of Fulwood Academy Trust, Joan Dean.
Each student group gave strong presentations, impressing the judges and senior News UK audience with their confidence and sharing engaging, high-quality content. Overall, the partnership was a transformative experience for all parties involved, more especially the students, whose young lives have been positively impacted having gained new perspectives, enjoyed first-hand experiences and witnessed real-world technology in a professional, “big corporate” environment.
Thank Yous
Warm thanks and appreciation goes to all the facilitators from News UK: Adam MacVeigh, Amaritpal Saini, Emily Richards, Franki Callard, Jack Britchford, Jasmina Jambresic, Kirsteen King, Mike Preston, Rebecca Frearson, Ruaridh McKay, Stephen Hill and Tolu Oni.
Special thanks to the teachers from Fulwood school for their help and support throughout the partnership: Lee McLinden, Walid Zulfiqar and Ashleigh Arciniega.
Thanks to the team which leads on early careers for helping to coordinate the final day’s event, Mark Hudson and Jess Lee.
And finally, thanks to the judges and members of the News UK executive team who supported the final event: Sir Charles Dunstone, David Dinsmore, Claire Garlick and Joan Dean.
