Pupils from Bishop Fox’s School in Taunton have had their imaginations fired at digital taster session in Taunton Library’s Glass Box.
The enthusiastic year nine students kicked-off the Glass Box’s 2018 schools programme when they attended the first of three sessions led by local businesses and staff from Somerset County Council’s Library Service.
The Glass Box is the innovation and enterprise space within the library acting as a ‘digital skills hub’ for the county, encouraging young people and local businesses to develop digital skills.
The Fox’s pupils were given a valuable insight into the world of ‘creative digital’ with a workshop led by Shane Griffiths from The Idea Bureau, a local digital business that specialises in developing apps and web design.
This was followed by an introduction from Olly Hellis, Somerset Libraries Digital Development Officer, highlighting the exciting kit available in the box and the main library which includes 3D printing, scanning and coding.
Councillor David Hall, Cabinet Member for Resources and Economic Development, said: “The library can play an important role in fostering innovation and developing digital skills. These workshops are just an example of how we are strengthening our connections with schools and colleges and enabling young people to collaborate with and learn from local businesses which are kindly giving up some of their time to inspire our entrepreneurs of tomorrow.
“Digital skills development is both local and national priority and we believe that we are helping to lead the way by showcasing cutting-edge technology and using our library spaces in new and innovative ways to reach out to a wider audience of all ages”.
Steve Summerhill, Deputy Headteacher at Bishop Fox’s, said: “I am delighted that our gifted Media and Computing students have had the opportunity to undertake these masterclasses at the Glass Box. These sessions have allowed the students to develop their skills learned in school in a commercial environment allowing them to see the value of these knowledge in the real world.”
Shane from The Idea Bureau said: “I wanted to give students a chance to experience real-life app development by giving them the tools for ‘story-boarding’ and explore their own ideas for an app that they can then go on to develop and market in future sessions.
“I was really impressed with their thirst for knowledge, their innovative ideas and their enthusiasm to learn and to share ideas. As a member of the Digital Taunton Partnership, I was pleased to see local young people showing such an interest in a career in digital technology.”