Brooklands Innovation Academy Launch
Published On: 22nd December 2022
As featured in the NW Surrey Alliance Newsletter (21.12.2022):
As an Alliance, we want to engage with our communities earlier so that we can create healthy places which allow our population to stay well and independent as well as provide the best outcomes for them.
As part of this process, the North West Surrey Health and Care Alliance (NWSA) is helping to sponsor the Brooklands Innovation Academy. The inaugural event took place at Brooklands Museum on 29 November 2022. This was one of three free events for pre-GCSE secondary school students held across the UK in November 2022 as part of the annual National Science Summer School programme, co-founded in 2012 by Professor Brian Cox CBE and Lord Andrew Mawson OBE.
The aim of Science Summer School is to create an annual nationwide programme which inspires and supports young people to become the next generation of scientists and engineers, while helping to make the UK the best place in the world to do science.
This initiative is managed by Well North Enterprises which is already working with NWSA and one of its partner organisations, Ashford and St Peter’s Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (ASPH), to help deliver sustainable change by enhancing their roles within the local community as an anchor organisation.
Science Summer School offers a practical way to help build on the existing work of NWSA and ASPH, its local partners and its emerging Integrated Care Partnership. The aim is to develop a vision for the future which meets the aspirations of colleagues, patients and their families, partner organisations and is relevant for local neighbourhoods.
For the past 18 months, NWSA has been working with Well North Enterprises, Brooklands Museum and The Bourne Education Trust to develop the Brooklands Innovation Academy.
Professor Brian Cox CBE joined remotely in the morning from his current world tour to welcome students and deliver
a keynote speech titled ‘The origins of the universe, cosmology, and black holes’. Other guest speakers included Kirsty Murphy MBE, the first female pilot in The Red Arrows and Wing Commander Andy Green OBE, the holder of the World Land Speed Record.
During the day several workshops took place across the site for the 400 students to find more about Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) careers by getting involved and ‘learning by doing’.
One of these workshops was led by the Clinical Education team at ASPH, where students learnt how pulse oximeters, ultrasounds and Doppler machines work and how they are used in hospitals to care for patients.
Dr David Fluck, ASPH – Medical Director and Professor Pankaj Sharma, ASPH – Director of Research and Development attended the event to present three local students with awards alongside Penny Alford, Chief Education Officer – The Bourne Education Trust.
The Bourne Education Trust and ASPH have been working collaboratively for some time. They came together again to run a competition with local schools focusing on how the NHS can deliver its services in a more sustainable way.
Lord Andrew Mawson said:
“Education, health and business have tended to be rather like ships passing in the night and, if the UK is to succeed as a going concern in future, we must ‘join them up’. As part of this process here in Surrey, ASPH and The Bourne Education Trust have come together to create pathways into work in the NHS and into the many skilled jobs and range of disciplines required to run a modern hospital. It’s all about connecting a future workforce which lives on the doorstep into the local hospital. There are great opportunities for us all, especially if we deepen our collaboration and work to find new ways to innovate. Remember that these young people are the UK’s future so we must help and support them now. We know that knowledge is power, and this first Brooklands Innovation Academy has ticked all the right boxes in practical, not paper, terms. We thank our brilliant partners and look forward to building on this successful relationship in 2023”.
