HP launches £100,000-a-year schools challenge to boost STEAM learning

Vendor partners with Microsoft and Intel to dish out £25,000 to four schools every year

HP Inc will award £25,000 to four schools every year as part of a campaign to improve the quality of STEAM learning in schools.

The Community Tech Challenge - which sees HP partner with Microsoft and Intel - has been launched today, with two schools awarded the prize to spend on technology products and services in STEAM (science, technology, engineering, the arts and mathematics) subjects.

Schools will be awarded £25,000 after submitting their reasons for needing a funding boost and providing an outline of how students will benefit.

Neil Sawyer, education business director at HP, said: "The opening submissions reinforced HP's appreciation of the dedication and passion of educators across the UK.

"It was truly difficult to select one winner for our prize this quarter, which is why we chose two.

"We believe the Community Tech Challenge will help even more schools implement the technology needed to reinvent learning environments and boost the teaching of STEAM subjects."

The programme will also see HP help schools dispose of unwanted devices, with the vendor planning to recycle 500 devices from each winning school within six months of the prize being handed out.

HP said it gave over £2m to schools through its wider education programme in last year.

The vendor also encouraged its partners to get on board, by offering them a £20,000 grant to give to schools that buy HP products.

The first two schools to win the extra funding are Glascote Academy in Tamworth and Woodlands School in Essex.

Glascote IT lead Claire Cooper said: "We've already seen marked success with our STEAM programme, and this award will help us build a greater digital learning culture within the school, providing our pupils with even more opportunities to develop STEAM-related skills through the use of leading technology."

Woodlands head teacher Simon Cox added: "Given over half of our 1,500 pupils have been diagnosed with some form of speech and language special needs, we understand how challenged students can be at a disadvantage during exams.

"We wanted to change that. With this HP Tech Challenge award, Woodlands will invest in a digital support platform providing students - once limited by their speech and language challenges - with the tools needed to truly excel."