Trinity School, Croydon Pupil speaks at BETT Show

10 Feb 2015

·The Digital Youth Council is part of ‘Generation Tech’ – a wider state-of-the-nation review into the way technology is used in education. Led by Sir Richard Branson.

·BETT is one of the top education technology shows in the world.

·Kaashif Hymabaccus (Year 13) from Trinity School, Croydon is one of only eight pupils from across the UK who sits on the UK’s first Digital Youth Council

·Kaashif was interviewed by Rory Cellan-Jones, the BBC’s Technology Correspondent

·Kaashif Hymabaccus said: “I couldn’t have imagined that I would have the opportunity to speak to an arena of industry and education experts, or be interviewed by the BBC! It was a fantastic experience.”

Kaashif Hymabaccus (Year 13) from Trinity School, Croydon is one of eight pupils (aged 9-17) from across the UK who sits on the UK’s first Digital Youth Council.

The Council is overseen by Virgin Media Business and follows on from an initiative started by Sir Richard Branson called Generation Tech. There was a major review in 2014 of the views of 20,000 students in schools across the UK, exploring their opinions on how technology should be used in learning. Their findings can be seen in an online video (http://youtu.be/Y6Q-LZxGe8k) that reveals, for example, that 1 in 100 schools don’t even have a single PC.

Kaashif, along with his fellow Council members, was invited to speak at BETT, one of the top education technology shows in the world. The Council had worked on two projects when they met in December and each team presented their ideas.

Kaashif’s group revealed their plan for a wearable smart watch for learning, called CrEdO (Classroom Education On you). The idea is that the device enables timely advice and information to be sent to students, enabling them to keep on top of their learning. Other functions could include fitness tools and learning apps.

There was a large audience in the main BETT Arena and the Council came on after a talk by Anthony Salcito, the Vice President of Global Learning for Microsoft. It was no small feat for such a youthful team to follow someone of his international reputation.
All the students spoke well about their ideas. Kaashif was particularly impressive, so much so that he was interviewed afterwards by Rory Cellan-Jones, the BBC’s Technology Correspondent, for a show called Tech Tent, that was broadcast globally on the BBC World Service. It also appears on the BBC website (http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p01plr2p)

Kaashif, who has been offered a place at Oxford University to read Maths and Computer Science, said “I couldn’t have imagined that I would have the opportunity to speak to an arena of industry and education experts, or be interviewed by the BBC! It was an amazing experience.”

On 5th March 2015, Kaashif and the other Council members have been invited to meet with Sir Richard Branson to discuss Educational Technology in greater depth.