Kingston College is delighted to announce that a team of its Engineering apprentices have recently been awarded Best Learner with a presentation at the House of Lords. 

In May, the Committee of South London Principals (COSLP) held its annual Best Learner Awards and the winner of the award for Kingston College was Tiro Racing, a group of 6 Engineering apprentices. The team were presented with their award by Lord Tope at a prestigious ceremony in the Cholmondeley Room, House of Lords.

Tiro Racing is a team of 6 Engineering apprentices who are competing in the 2017 F1 in Schools World Finals in Kuala Lumpur as England National Champions. The team members and employing companies comprise of:

Joshua Schofield 19 - Team Manager – National Physical Laboratory
Matthew Watkins 19 – Senior Manufacturing and Testing Engineer – Imperial College London
George Lawlor 19 – Manufacturing Engineer – GlaxoSmithKline
Toby Thomson 17 – CAD and Graphic Designer – National Physical Laboratory
Alisha Read 17 – Branding and Team Image Co-ordinator – Siemens
Hugh Barker 19 – Public Relations Manager – Rolls-Royce

Josh Schofield commented: “Receiving the COSLP Award from the House of Lords was a fantastic experience for all of us! It's great knowing our achievements in the F1 in Schools competition have been recognised by Kingston College and the support in our efforts to reach the World Finals in Malaysia has been outstanding. We all enjoyed learning about the other nominees’ stories, what an incredible experience the day was."

Dean Shearing, the team’s Engineering Lecturer said: “I'm so proud of the team. It's a delight that they've got some of the recognition they deserve. This award really is the pinnacle of the journey so far. I knew this was a special group when they formed back in September, but I couldn't have envisaged how far they've come in the past months, learning so many transferable skills and even teaching me a thing or two along the way." 

F1 in Schools is the world’s largest STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) challenge with over 20 million students taking part from 50 different countries. The competition requires students to design, manufacture, test and race a model, gas powered 25:1 scale F1 car, whilst complying with a stringent set of regulations. The project involves students drawing comparisons to the real world of Formula 1 so teams are judged on their enterprise, marketing and team identity as well the engineering gone into the car. Teams are required to produce an exhibition style display, portfolios to document enterprise and engineering and give a formal presentation to a panel of judges. 

Tiro Racing first competed in the 2017 London and South East Regional Final, where against 24 other teams they placed 2nd overall and won the award for the Best Team Identity. From here they progressed to the UK National Final held at the acclaimed Silverstone GP circuit on the 29th and 30th March 2017. After 2 days of tough competition from the best 30 teams around the country, Tiro Racing came away with the prestigious Best Engineered Car award, 2nd place overall and were crowned England National Champions. 

From here they will represent England at the 2017 World Finals held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in September 2017 as the first ever apprentice team to reach a World Finals and attempt to be crowned World Champions. 
 

Article supplied by Wendy Catt-Camfield