Secondary school and sixth form (11-18)

Secondary Schools, Sixth Forms and Colleges

ECS is one of the best places in the world to study computer science and is consistently ranked among the top UK universities for teaching computer science. Sharing this experience with your learners, we aim to encourage more young people to take STEM subjects by engaging them in fun interactive projects.

ECS Residential Summer Taster Courses

Our popular Summer Taster Courses have been running successfully for many years. They are a great way to find out more about subjects which are at the cutting edge of technology and to explore whether this sector is right for you. These one-week residential courses will enable you to experience either Biomedical Engineering (Electronics) or Electronic Engineering and Computer Science. You will live life as a university student and enjoy a busy programme:

• Try your hand at real experiments in our state-of-the-art laboratories
• Learn about our teaching and research from our globally renowned lecturers
• Get to know our current students and recent graduates 
• Enjoy social events and meet fellow students
• Experience life on campus and in our halls of residence
• Meet leading employers at our annual Taster Course Careers Fair

Our Taster Courses run each summer (late-July or early-August) for students at the end of Year 12. More information can be found at https://www.taster.ecs.soton.ac.uk

A-Level Teachers Workshop in Electronics, Computing and Physics

These exciting and innovative events, hosted in our world-leading Undergraduate teaching labs, are centred around subject-based activities including hands-on classroom programming activities using the Raspberry Pi, and a hardware exercise teaching boolean algebra and digital logic parts of the syllabus with our new ‘Logic & Arithmetic‘ circuit board. Attendees will be provided with a free classroom set of Logic & Arithmetic boards, valued at over £500.

More information on the events can be found here.

Programming and computer game design workshops using Raspberry Pi and Python

ECS can give your learners a taster of a programming lesson here at our impressive computer labs. We are able to offer you sessions at introductory, intermediate or advanced level session according to your learners’ abilities.

Using Pygame, based on the popular Python programming language, we are also able to teach your learners how to make computer games. These workshops are extremely popular, as they provide an accessible foundation to computer programming using our expertise in computer science. We do ask that your learners have had at least four weeks’ taught programming experience before they attend this workshop and prior knowledge of Python is advisable.

Let us know what your learners have covered in their lessons and we can match your to their skills level, focusing on the most relevant topics.

University of Southampton Researchers building a supercomputer using the Raspberry Pi

Robotics day

Do you think your learners would be interested in learning more or experiencing robotics in action? If so then we would welcome a group of your students to visit the University of Southampton for the day to get involved and take part in a robotics orientated activity to gain immediate hands on experience.

Student Robotics challenge

Hosted at the University of Southampton, Student Robotics is an ECS-run challenge where teams of young people from schools, colleges and sixth forms have to design, build and test their own fully-autonomous robots before competing them against other teams. Are your learners up to the challenge? Discover more at www.studentrobotics.org.

Coming soon – phone application (app) design

We will soon be trialing beginner-level phone app design sessions. These sessions are being designed in response to the massive rise in mobile phone applications and games being produced today. In future, we also aim to design intermediate and advanced sessions, providing learners with a more detailed understanding of the process and challenges of phone app design.

Additional events

We also host a number of major annual events that further encourage young people into science. These include:

• Think IT with IBM – a two-day event designed to encourage secondary school girls to continue studying computing, engineering, technology and science, and to consider careers in the IT industry.
• The Institution of Engineering and Technology Faraday engineering challenge – part of a national initiative aiming to encourage more young people to study and consider careers in science, technology, engineering and maths by encouraging creativity, innovation and problem-solving skills.