Race to Learn Scoops Award

Posted on Monday 18 Jan 2010 and tagged with corporate.

Williams F1 and Cambridge University Press have been jointly recognised with a leading industry award this week for their educational software product, Race to Learn.

The product, which uses Formula One as an exciting point of engagement for primary school children, provides cross-curricular learning for Year 5 & 6 pupils providing 12 half-days of teaching support in many subject areas. It uses a range of multimedia content including real Formula One footage to promote individual and group working.

Designed for interactive whiteboards, Race to Learn covers key curriculum topics – Science, Maths, Literacy, Geography, PSHE, Design & Technology, Physical Education – with each one linked to the relevant National Curriculum/Framework objectives.

Winning the British Education & Technology Training (BETT) Digital Content award in the Primary category, Race to Learn was commended by the BETT award judges as containing “superb activities that are highly engaging for children” and “with helpful teacher introduction and age-appropriate activities, Race to Learn is a well thought through support for cross-curricular learning.”

The BETT Awards form part of the BETT Show at Olympia last week, which is the world’s largest educational IT trade conference attracting over 29,000 visitors from around the world. BETT’s endorsement of Race to Learn follows a highly successful pilot of the product in 2009 at Oakdale Junior School in Redbridge. The pupils’ response to the trial was consistent with the BETT judges’ recent view that Race to Learn’s greatest merit is its ability to engage all students, both high achievers and reluctant learners alike. The teacher who led the pilot project, Dawn Hallybone said, “I would recommend Race to Learn because it gets children talking through its use of video and its teamwork exercises. It gives children exactly the kinds of things they are interested in and provides a captivating real-life context for their learning.”

Race to Learn was launched in June 2009 for UK primary schools and its initial success has encouraged Williams F1 and Cambridge University Press to expand the project overseas with foreign language versions currently in development. Reviewed recently in the leading trade title, Teach Primary!, the product scored 10/10 and attracted commendations that included “The activities have been carefully thought out and the children loved them.”

Race to Learn is one project in Williams F1’s corporate social responsibility programme, which is based on the three pillars of education, energy efficiency and road safety. Williams F1’s Chief Executive, Adam Parr commented, “It is great news to add industry endorsement for Race to Learn to the positive reception it has had from the educational media, teachers, and most importantly, school pupils themselves. With the combined attractiveness of Formula One to school children and the sector expertise that Cambridge University Press has in educational software, Race to Learn has shown that it has real merit in the classroom.”

Race to Learn has its own dedicated website at www.racetolearn.org which provides the opportunity for participating schools to post their class work for review, with winning entries invited to the home of the Formula One team near Oxford for a range of educational activities.

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