In recent weeks, Year 6 have been taking part in the F1 in Schools Programme. The programme enables the students to experience the teamwork and excitement of being part of an F1 race team.
They explore, determine and design their own race team identity, motto, colour scheme and mission statement.

Cars are manufactured out of cardboard, metal and plastic. In total, the cars took approximately 2-3 hours of class time to build.

Yesterday (Sun 22/05/16) in the school hall, we saw the culmination of all of their hard work, when the students finally were able to race their cars on a purpose built race track. The camaraderie among the teams was a joy to see, with teams cheering on and encouraging each other throughout.

The designs of the cars were fantastic, along with the designs of the t-shirts some of the teams had had made.
Some cars fared better than others on the race track and some even needed minor (and the odd major!) repairs along the way!

At the start of each race, the drivers’ eyes were fixed on the starting light gantry, where a sequence of five red lights is illuminated. When the red lights go out, after a random time delay, the race is underway. Some were incredibly quick to press the button to set their cars roaring down the track but some were a little too eager, which resulted in the occasional false start!

The cars, powered by a small CO2 gas cylinder, which was fitted by the race controller from Yas Marina Circuit, reached speeds of 60-70 kph, although they did look a lot faster!

The day was a roaring success and every single student will hopefully have had a massive sense of achievement at the end of it, following all the tireless hard work they have quite clearly put into this project.
Speaking to the father of a Year 6 student who came along to watch, he told me that his child had got so much out of this experience. They loved being part of a team and being able to discuss ideas and designs and then seeing the result of their hard work with the racing car that they built, with friends.

After careful scrutinising of the data, the race controller was able to confirm the following results:

Team Winners – Judged on average time between 3- 4 races.

1^st Place Team Racing – Speed Overload

2^nd – Double Drive

3^rd – Lightning Shadows

Best Reaction Time – Victor Vreugdenburg  (0.158 secs)

Best Presented Car – Speed Overload

Congratulations to all of the winners and also well done to all of the other teams for making the morning such a thrilling experience.

Below are some photos below of the day.

Setting up the race track

On the starting grid

On your marks…                                              Get set…                                                       GO!!
Look at that determination!

A few nerves at the starting grid, but we did it! What teamwork!

This one is close!

Team t-shirts

A few repairs needed here…