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Laura Howarth-Kirke

Software Engineer and former student of Fred Longworth High School.

ALUMNI

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MORE IN THIS SECTION

Laura Howarth-Kirke

Software Engineer and former student of Fred Longworth High School.

ALUMNI

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MORE IN THIS SECTION

Laura Howarth-Kirke

Software Engineer and former student of Fred Longworth High School.

Laura Howarth-Kirke is an experienced software engineer and tech lead. Over her career, she has transitioned from working for major British media and public sector organisations to taking on senior engineering roles within prominent global tech companies.

In this article Laura talks about her memories of her time at Fred Longworth High School.

I left Fred Longworth in 2007 and went on to study computing, media studies and maths at College. I then went on to study for a degree in Computer Science from Manchester University. In my 3rd year I worked at IBM on an industrial placement where I was able to earn a salary.

When I left university I got a job on the BBC’s Graduate Scheme, and I helped to build the medal tables for BBC Sport’s Winter Olympics pages.

Most of my job is about solving problems! A problem might be that we need a concise way to show medal Olympic winners on the BBC Sport website, so you build a table to display it. I might be finding out why something doesn’t work and fixing it; e.g. why gold winners are shown but not silver? It’s very satisfying – like solving a Sudoku puzzle! I also spend most of my day talking! I talk about what we should build, how we should build it and discuss why things work the way they do.

The most challenging part of my job is that solving problems requires lots of patience. You might spend hours trying to figure out why some code you wrote isn’t working, only to find out it’s because you put a space in the wrong place!

It can also be difficult to keep up-to-date as the technology industry is also constantly improving with new technologies like Virtual Reality coming out. This means you have to be aware of the latest trends and keep your skills up to date so that you can write code for them. Sometimes this means reading blogs/teaching yourself new coding languages in your own time.

A typical day at work starts with a ‘stand-up’ meeting in the morning to find out what everyone is working on. Following that I may talk to a designer about what we’re building and decide what it should look like (e.g. What colour should the rows be in the Olympic Medal table on the BBC Sport website. I would then write the code needed and use associated automated tests using ‘pair-programming’ This is where 2 colleagues discuss the approach then one colleague writes the code whilst the other colleague watches and makes notes about improvements that could be made. I would then show my work to a tester and help to manually test the feature (e.g. Medals table) that I built. Finally I would deploy my work that the public can use it.

To get into a role like mine you could go down the academic route of studying Maths, the Science’s and ideally Computer Science at GCSE/A Level and Degree level. Alternatively you can teach yourself how to code and get an apprenticeship or work as a freelancer initially until you build up a portfolio of work.

My top tips for students looking to get into this industry are:

  • Demonstrate your passion by coding/engineering at home  like writing code for a Raspberry Pi
  • Have a play around with some of the interactive websites that teach you to code whilst solving problems, like CodeAcademy
  • Ultimately, study something you enjoy!  That way you’ll put more effort into it, hopefully do well and get a career in it.

How Yondr Works

Frequently Asked Questions

We want our students to be engaged in their learning. A child at high school should not really have a reason to contact a parent during the day; however, if there is a genuine reason e.g. they have forgotten their packed lunch, a phone call can be made home from the school office. If a parent needs to contact their child in an emergency, they should contact the school office. If you need to contact your child during the school day, contact the main office on 01942 883796.

In case of a school emergency, we direct our students to safety first, following our school emergency procedures.

 

Students are in possession of their phone - in their Yondr pouch - for the entire school day. We will advise students to store the pouch safely in their school bag or blazer pockets.

If a student damages their Pouch or is caught on their phone, we will confiscate the phone and issue a sanction which is likely to be a suspension.

Note: Damage consists of any signs that the physical integrity of the pouch has been compromised, whether intentional or unintentional, as determined by the school or Yondr staff.

Damaged pouches will be charged to parents at a cost of £20.

They will be searched and wanded with a handheld scanner by a member of SLT. If they are found to have their phone on their person they will be expected to place it in their pouch. Refusal will be met with suspension.

If a student forgets their Pouch, their phone will be confiscated.

As per our previous mobile phone policy;

  • Confiscated phones will be taken to reception where the phone will be secured in the school safe.
  • Parents will be alerted to the phone confiscation via the school office.

Parents will have the option to collect the phone at the end of the day. If parents do not collect the phone, the phone will remain in school until the end of the week or until the student has their pouch.

In Yondr’s experience, this almost never happens. All students funnel past the unlocking stations at the exits, they want their phones back and don’t forget to unlock their pouches. If they do arrive home with a phone in a pouch, they can either come back to school to unlock it, or have a phone free evening!

The unlocking process is quick and takes under a second per student. 

As a privilege, Year 11 will be able to unlock their phones as they go off site at lunchtime; however, they will be expected to put their phones back into their pouches when they return to school for period 5.

Yes. There is an adapted version of the pouch which uses a Velcro fastener instead of a magnetic lock. This means the student still follows the policy, but the adapted pouch gives them easy access to their phone when required. If the student abuses this, they will face a sanction. We are already aware of these students.

Your Office 365 account username is your school network account username followed by @flhs.wigan.sch.uk 
The password is the same password that you use in school to access computers.