Members of our Club like to support young people in a number of ways – helping them get experiences and build skills which can help them in their future careers. We’re particularly interested in engaging youngsters in STEM subjects – Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths. In recent years one way that we’ve done this is by sponsoring local teams taking part in the F1 in Schools Competition – a worldwide competition in which youngsters are challenged with producing and racing model F1 cars. In the past we’ve sponsored teams Evolve and Eclipse from Queen Elizabeth’s Grammar School in Faversham. Both did extremely well and became National Champions … and team Evolve even went on to become World Champions!
Recently, our Community & Vocational Service Committee (CVSC) was approached by Team LEAF1, which has been formed by 6th formers at SLBS under guidance of their design teacher, Dan Pledger, with a request to part-sponsor the team. Brian Dobinson, from our CVSC, subsequently went out to meet the four team members and their teacher.
The team has successfully competed in the regional preliminary events and qualified to compete in the National Finals, to be held in mid-March in Rotherham. If they do well there, they will qualify for the World Finals.
A new car has had to be constructed for the National Finals and the team has had to seek sponsorship to take part in the competition and to cover the costs of travel and accommodation. Our CVSC agreed to sponsor the team; other local businesses and organizations will also be helping to cover costs.
Team LEAF1 is dedicated to promoting sustainability and continued innovation through open-source engineering – you can see visit their website (through which you can contact them) here.
We’re really excited by our sponsorship and wish the team well in the national event.
Picture: Team LEAF1‘s logo. Picture credit: Team LEAF1/SLBS. (with permission)
