2023-24 Season

We are now in our second year of this exciting STEM project for our Year 6 children. We were very successful in our first season and already this year, the children are showing so much promise! There is a buzz in the classrooms every Friday after school as the Aston Arrows Racing team meets. 

Every week, the children will be writing and posting a blog here to keep friends and family up to date with our progress.

Race Dates

Greenpower Education Trust have just released their race dates for this year!

We will be competing at the following races:

Thursday 6th June 2024

Staffordshire Goblins

Curborough Sprint Track, Netherstowe Lane, Fradley, Lichfield WS13 8EJ

Sunday 30th June

Gathering of Goblins

Goodwood Motor Circuit, West Sussex, PO18 0PX

Please save the dates as we need support from families on the days!

More information to follow over the coming weeks.

Friday 26th April 2024

Friday April 19th 2024

Friday 22nd March 2024

Friday 15th March 2024

8th March 2024

This is week 3 of driving on the drag race course. Up first was Charlie B.
Charlie B: ‘It was hard starting out but because of Mike’s advice I found it much easier.

On the fundraising team, Oliver has been looking at paracord bracelets to make and sell on for our fundraising team to get money.

The body work team has been designing the nose panel  and they have been making mini car designs that will go towards the idea of what the car will look like.

1st March 2024

In our fundraising team, we have finished our chocolate raffle planning and we were creating posters for the raffle that will go up around school to inform and excite children into buying tickets. 

In Bodywork team, they were measuring the car and creating templates for the different panels of the bodywork. Once we have got these, we can start to create the bodywork from cardboard and papier mache to make our chosen design. 

This marks the second week of drag race practice. It was the turn of our second racing group and they showed great driving skill. 

23rd January 2024

The drag race team have been practising for any drag competitions. They have learnt to drive and push the car at the start of the race. The racetrack was made with blue and white barriers to protect the people from getting hurt. It was Jenson’s first week at Aston Arrows, he was one of the first people to do the drag race. At the end of the track, we have barriers to protect the driver from bashing into the gate. The rest of the group, who had already driven encouraged the drivers. However, at the end of the lesson the car broke down! Lottie, who was in the car when it began to malfunction, showed some excellent driving skills and managed to not crash into anything!  

The body work team has been creating mini paper car frames. They have been doing this so we can decide on the best look for our real car. Some look very funny! 

19th January 2024

It is January and the Aston Arrows team has made great progress on our car so far. We have already started on our bodywork as well as practicing the pit stop challenge. 

 Building and Repairing 

Unfortunately, the car has been faced with some minor issues in the mechanics of the car. The front axle has a twisted chassis (a part at the bottom of the car). So, our team – Mike, Andy, Isla, Cole, Jacob S and Jack - have made it their job to fix it. Together, they worked on straightening the chassis and fastening a bolt made out of old car to try and straighten the chassis up. They were also applying a smaller washer as the others were too big. 

Bodywork 

As decided by our team, we are making a penguin car. To make sure we have the most sustainable, endurable and useful materials, our bodywork team has been testing out materials such as PVA glue, paper mâché to find out the most hard wearing and waterproof material in case it rains on one of our racing days.  

Portfolio   

Our portfolio team have been finishing off quotes for our team. After sadly losing one of our members but gaining a new one, the portfolio team have had to make some changes to our book.  

 Fundraising           

Our fundraising team has been working hard to get more money and sponsors for our team. Letters are being written to individuals and companies to get more sponsorship. Meanwhile, Oliver Pitt has been finding the cost of paracord (lightweight nylon rope) to make into keyrings and bracelets to hopefully earn more money for our team. 

12th January 2024

Welcome back! After a well-earned break, we are all working hard to get the car and team race ready!

Fundraising/portfolio 

In this lesson, Darcy and Freya were drafting a letter to a local racing driver inviting him in to talk to the team and see what we are doing. Olivia, Izzy and Freya were thinking of fundraising events that we could put on over the next few months to raise money for the project. Erin, Akira, Aimee and Freya were creating a ‘meet the team’ page for the portfolio.  

Design  

In the computing suite, Charlie, Ben and Lucia were designing the bodywork for our penguin car design while Oliver, Oliver, Arthur and Dylan were looking for possible materials to use to build it. They were looking for recyclable materials so that our car can be as eco- friendly as possible. During the week both classes will be collecting scrap A4 paper to investigate paper mâché as a possible material to use for the bodywork. 

Pitstop challenge  

Meanwhile Lottie set the new record on the pitstop challenge which is 50.2 seconds which beat our old record by over 30 seconds! 

Framework 

Mike and Andy have been spending the week thinking how they can attach a new part sent by Greenpower to stop the metal bending as this would cause issues if we do not stop it.

8th December 2023

Today was our last meeting before Christmas, and one that was very important. While Mike and Andy worked with just a few children to complete the rebuild of the framework using the new parts, Joshua (our volunteer from AGS) was teaching groups of children how to complete the pitstop challenge. This will be part of our competition at Goodwood in the summer.

The rest of the club were listening to presentations given by members to win support for their ideas for the car bodywork. They were certainly varied! We decided that the design had to be made from recycled materials and have an environmental message. We heard about a design of a penguin made from recycled cardboad and papier mache, which would have link with a global warming message and the destruction of the ice caps. Then there was 'The dog ate my homework' which would be made out of recycled worksheets. Another design was also made out of recycled materials found in school and would represent a red kite and the story of its reintroduction into the Chilterns. There were also ideas of the four elements or four seasons, Wendover Woods and the importance of trees and even a recycling bin!

Everyone presented very well and there was a fantastic discussion involving the whole club, with some of the designs being discussed and improved. Finally, we had a vote and chose our bodywork design. More of this next term as we start to develop the idea and build it!

1st December 2023

Aston Arrows at the Christmas Fair

Everyone worked very hard to get the stalls ready for the fair, and on the day manning the stalls. We were busy and raised much awareness of what we do as well as over £160. Thank you to everyone who visited us.

17th November 2023

             Preparing for the Christmas Fayre  

In a couple of weeks, Aston Arrows will be running some stalls for the Christmas Fayre. This week, we were focusing on preparing for it. We were designing posters and signs to show what activities we will be running and printing off activities. Our stalls we are running are: biscuit icing, pitstop challenge, guess the teddy bear’s name, pin the wheels on the car, guess the teacher baby photos, guess how many screws are on a car and Scalextric. Everyone has signed up for an activity at a certain time. We decided on prices for each stall and prizes.

                Issues whilst driving the car

This week the second group drove the car. After a few laps, the belt on the car snapped and had to be replaced, then after a couple more laps the new belt snapped again! We had to pause driving for a while whilst the car was repaired , much to the disappointment to some of the drivers. Luckily, the belt was fixed before the end of the session so the driving lesson continued.

Erin: “I was dead nervous to drive the car!”

Charlie B: “I was really disappointed when the belt snapped, as I was really looking forward to driving!”

Isla: “I loved it! I was so disappointed when the belt snapped whilst I was driving!”

11th November -

Our first drive!

On the 10th of November 2023, it was our very first day of driving. Last week, we were sorted into groups randomly: week 1, week 2 and week 3. Those in week 1 were required to go first. To begin with, our teachers for racing, Mike and Andy, ensured the children were safe by making sure they were strapped in, had the correct sized helmet and where comfortable. Before they started, a brief safety talk was given and a pusher and a driver got onto the track. James Tucker was first onto the track and did a reasonable lap around the course. He proved to be a little wobbly on the steering and tight on the turning but overall, an amazing first drive! Next up was Jacob Hutchinson -like James, he was quite tight on the corners but did an amazing several laps! Afterwards he quoted, ‘The car was really fast but I absolutely loved the drive!’.  

First time driver, Freya Taylor, was hesitant to go in the car and begin driving. After receiving coaching from her friends, she got in the car and blasted away, making an amazing apex and still going fast. This drive was possibly the most exceptional drives of the day. Many other children went drove, with perfectly executed apexes, terrific turns and outstanding steering! Overall, the children loved the driving session. 

Back in the classroom, the remaining children were preparing for the upcoming Christmas Fayre. Members of our team were arranging events for the fayre. Olivia Volker was drawing a car for the game ‘pin the wheel on the car’, Olly Keane and Charlie Hill were blurring out the faces of some of the most famous racing drivers in the world to see if people could guess who they were and Oliver Pitt was being creative with some names for the teddy in ‘guess the teddy’s name’. 

Overall, it was a fantastic day for all members of Aston Arrows. By the end the drivers of that day shared some of their best memories of the day and the coaches did so too. 

By Freya Gottschalk and Harry Hewitt 

3rd November 2023

Driving lesson

Week 5 

13th October 2023

We are now already at week 5 in our Aston Arrows journey and our team is really making progress! Our build team has: put on 2 back wheels, the front axle, the seat and the seatbelt. They also worked on the brakes and connecting them to the wheels.

Our portfolio team has been planning each page and what they need to do well in order to have a successful portfolio. They have also begun to stick in the individual head shots and fill in what each person is looking forward to.

Our blog team has been working on last week’s blog to post as we do every week. Our design team had many different ideas this week. There was an endangered animal cuddly toy idea, a dog ate the homework idea and a recycling material idea. Each of these have technical difficulties and need a lot of thought to make it work for the car. We thoroughly enjoyed hearing all about each idea and can’t wait to hear more about the technical parts of each design.

Week 4 

October 6th

Week 3

Body work

The people that have taken part in the body work include Charlie B, Charlie H, Harry H. They have all been working on different designs that could be used on the car when it’s time. Charlie H has been working on an elements design suggested by another team member. Charlie B has been working on his own idea of a red kite design.

Harry H wrote up a paragraph about the element design and the wheelie bin design which is another design we came up with.

Building team

The building team involves Freya G, Darcey, James, Joshua, Benjamin, don’t forget adults such as Andy, John and Mike.

Darcey and Freya G worked together to attach the rear axel and the brake calliper to the car. Another pair was Joshua and James who have been building the front of the car. Benjamin has been screwing in the screws they said it was hard but they got it eventually. Mike has been helping Arthur and Jacob fix the axle to the car but there were some challenges along the way such as they did it wrong to begin with but they got there. Andy has been supervising the rear axle which went very successfully. Last but not least, John has been building the seat with other students as the seat needs to be attached to the car. There have been challenges along the way such as there is lots of bolts and nuts next to each other but they have managed to succeed in the prosses.

Port folio

The students taking part in this are: Freya T, Aimee and Lottie F. Freya has been going around to different members on the team and taking photos and interviewing them too. Aimee has been asking people what they are most looking forward too.

Fundraising

The people taking part in this are: Isla, Bella  and Olivia. Isla has been thinking of ways we can raise money and who we can write to to get sponsorship. Bella has been writing a letter to Dayla.

September 15th

Week 2 - Starting our journey

Designing the bodywork

This week our bodywork team (Charlie H, Charlie B, Ben, Freya G and Jacob S) have started to begin the process of designing the car that we will race in a year’s time. They began by jotting ideas on the computers and used the ICT whiteboard to draw a few different designs. The materials were another thing they researched and Ben made a chart of which materials would best fit the car. A fun adventure had come upon them and the team went looking for cardboard; to see what they could produce with the amount they could find. Freya G ended the day by showing us her PowerPoint on what design ideas we had.

Portfolio and fundraising

This term our portfolio team consists of: Freya T, Lottie and Aimee. They’ve been looking at last year’s portfolio and gathering ideas from it, as last year our school won the award for best portfolio. Drawing what a portfolio might look like is another activity they were doing.

We must also introduce our fundraising team, they are: Isla, Bella, Olivia and Oliver P, who have been writing down sponsors that we could possibly get. Also, the future was something on their mind, as they thought about future fundraising ideas.

 Starting the framework

Our framework team: Jack, Dylan, Jacob H, Lucia, Darcey, James, Josh and Cole, showed immense teamwork when using spanners, wrenches and rachets to tighten nuts and bolts. They had to be cautious though, because the aluminium frame, if bent, would end up ruining the project. They spent time learning the features of a car and built the roof of the car. They also experimented with the tools seeing what tool you need for each time you want to tighten something.

Week 1 - Tool safety

For our first hands on task in Aston Arrows we did a tool safety lesson.    

We started off by looking at a very informative power-point explaining what tools we would be using and how to use them safely while keeping others safe too. We looked at what tools were right for the different jobs and what to do during different phases of building the car. We were informed of the different forces that are needed to build the car and other construction information. To end our tool safety lesson, we were given a 3D puzzle consisting of different sized blocks of wood screwed together. Our first challenge was to unscrew each bolt and make note of what size each bolt was. Then we had a race to see which team could put it back together first with the right bolt in the right place.

After this lesson we all feel ready to construct our car.      

Season 1  2022-23

"We are building an electric racing car to race against other Green Goblin Power cars". Ethan

"We get to learn about engineering and STEAM - Science Technology Engineering Art Maths - and boost our creativity". Dylan

"There are 5 teams - Marketing, Framework, Bodywork, Marketing and Fundraising. We are in the Marketing group". Dylan

"I thinks it’s a fun, Inspirational group that might inspire me to be a scientist when I’m older". Benjamin

"We have to do PowerPoints to sponsors to say who we are and what we are doing and to raise money". Isla

Aston Arrows Update

This term has seen us making much progress with our Formula Goblin electric racing team. The team has decided on its name – Aston Arrows, designed a logo and formed smaller sub-groups to work on various aspects of the project.

The media team are busy keeping a log of activity and putting together a presentation for potential sponsors.

The bodywork team have researched possible materials and designs for the car and the build team have started constructing the frame.

Our finance team have been supporting the other teams but will be busy next term. Because of events between now and the end of term, we have finished for the summer and will start back early in September with our teams ready to hit the ground running!