COMMONWEAL students were going for gold at the end of term with many of them achieving Personal Development Awards.

Gold, silver and bronze awards were given out for hard work, determination and independent learning through the Asdan programme, a pioneering curriculum development organisation that helps to grow skills for life and employment.

"Comments and feedback from Asdan was, as always, very positive and complimentary about the standard of our students," said Keith Defter, headteacher at Commonweal School who presented the students with their certificates before the school holidays.

In Year 1, Chloe Jenkins and John Malcolm both received gold awards and Jamie Faircloth scooped a silver.

In Year 10, Bradley Fraser was presented with a gold award and Georgina Cooper was awarded a bronze.

After the ceremony Jamie said: "The Asdan programme helps me learn different skills to help me in the future,"

And Chloe added: "It has given me confidence and experience for myself which will help me at my college and work,"

Bradley said he had ‘pride and confidence now I have completed my Gold Award.’

The Bronze, Silver and Gold Awards form part of the Asdan (Award Scheme Development Accreditation Network) Personal Development Programmes tailored for individuals to be able to implement their own skills and knowledge to achieve tasks within 13 modules ranging from Home Management, Sport and the World of Work.

Students are supported to enable them to track their own progress in key areas for every task they complete such as; teamwork, learning, coping with problems, Maths, English and IT.

A teacher at Commonweal said: "We are all incredibly proud of how our students have engaged in the Asdan programme since its introduction to the school in 2014. We have seen them grow and develop into successful and confident young people who can achieve great things because they now have the knowledge and skills to help them with the next phase of their education or employment.

"Asdan provides the platform for them to shine and showcase what other talents they have. Our students have maximised their own learning via this invaluable programme and thanks must also go to the amazing team of colleagues involved in delivering and supporting Asdan at the school.’

Mathematicians at Commonweal also celebrated success with numbers.

“Students in Year 7 and 8 achieved five gold, 12 silver and 30 bronze awards in this year’s UKMT Junior Maths Challenge. In the Intermediate Challenge, aimed at Year 9 and 10, students achieved one gold, eight silver and 22 bronze. More than 250, 000 students from across the UK sat the Junior Maths Challenge and more than 200, 000 sat the Intermediate Maths Challenge.

The end of term also saw an eager group of Year 12 C6 students, together with some Intel interns embark on an Internet of Things project.

The aim was to use off the shelf components, combined with an Intel Genuino development board, combined with a Bluetooth medium range radio receiver-transmitter for a project that combined math, physics, electronics and problem solving.

After being divided into two teams: one to build the carbon fibre chassis and assemble the motors and speed controllers or ESC’s and the second team taking on the task of assembling the Genuino, Bluetooth module and learning how to write the main code.

The students went away with a great sense of what was possible and, with the interns taking turns at presentation and training, were able to see a possible future, whereby they could embark on similar work in associated industries, with the skills they had picked up whilst at Intel over the year.