We are delighted to celebrate the national success of Shona Tait, one of our S5 pupils, who was recently invited to attend the Arkwright Scholarship Awards ceremony in Glasgow.

The Arkwright Scholarship Trust was set up in 1991 to encourage and assist academically able and technologically/ design talented pupils throughout the UK who are in their S4 year. It aims to identify and support future leaders in engineering and design. From an initial annual award of 5 scholarships, they have recently been awarding around 400 scholarships per year.

Shona receiving her award from Jim McHarg, the Group Head of Learning and HR Business Partner, The Weir Group PLC

Shona, Mr McHarg and her fellow scholar Ewan Simpson from Auchterarder.

There are currently 1200 schools affiliated to the scheme nationally and in 2014, Wick High School joined the scheme with two applicants. The application process they follow is to fill in an initial online application form which is followed by an Aptitude exam in the first week of February. This tests the applicants in their ability to sketch solutions to problems in a 2 hour paper.

Those who are successful with these assessments are then invited to a final selection interview at Heriot Watt University in April. If successful, an award is made in July with the scholar being nominated a sponsoring company or trust who will provide support, guidance and work experience etc. Successful selection or even selection to interview is rated highly by university entrance panels and helps students to gain entry to their chosen university. In addition to these benefits, the award grants £600 to the scholar and £400 to the school to support STEM projects.

Shona Tait, now in S5, was successful in gaining an award sponsored by The Weir Group. They are a multi-national company, based in Scotland, but with over 90% of their employees based overseas. They have been involved with the scheme since 2012 and have offered their scholars a number of overseas work placements following their S5 year.

A member of the Arkwright Trust will be coming to Wick High School on the 30^th of November to give a presentation to the school about the benefits of Arkwright Trust and participation in the scheme.