Professional Engineers Inspire Apprentices Of The Future

Pilgrim Academy’s Student Leadership Team, Vice Principal Kayleigh Morley and Gabrielle Gray, STEM coordinator, with engineers Lloyd Fisher, Zac Nearney and Liam Cattell, from Equans.

A visit to Pilgrim Academy by a local company has inspired young engineers of the future.

As part of the Primary Engineer Programme, the children have been answering the question, ‘if you were an engineer what would you do?’ As part of their investigations they needed to research engineering and interview an engineer.

Lloyd Fisher, Zac Nearney and Liam Cattell, from Equans, visited the Academy and explained to the children what a civil and structural engineer does and told them about local projects that they have completed including; St James’ Square and Garth Lane in Grimsby.

They told the children about the different Health and Safety rules that they have to follow and gave them hard hats and high visibility jackets to try on. They were also given opportunities to ask lots of questions!

The children in Year 5 and 6 asked them how they became engineers and Lloyd Fisher explained to them how he started as an apprentice engineer and is now a qualified engineer.

The children will now all be identifying a problem in the world and inventing a solution to the problem. Ayse Ibrahim, Year 2, said her invention would be an automatic litter picker that roams the streets of Immingham!

The children across the Academy shared how much they had learnt following the session. Kai Barker-Pearson, in Year 6, said: “I’ve always thought I wanted to be an engineer and it showed me more about what it means to be an engineer than I already knew. It inspired me!”

Sophie Chapman, in Year 6, said: “They inspired me to become a successful engineer!”

Grace Elliot, in Year 3, said: “They told us about the plan they have to make before they build a structure. It was excellent!”

The children in Year 2 thoroughly enjoyed the discussion with the engineers and they asked them for advice about how to build structures. In the afternoon, linking it to their theme, the children took on board what they had said about good foundations and strong shapes and they tried to build tall structures by creating 3D shapes using only tape and art straws.

Mrs Kayleigh Morley, Vice Principal, who organised the event, said: “It was an amazing opportunity for the children to be inspired by local engineers. All three engineers commented on how impressed they were with the children and how interested they were in everything they said.”

Miss Gabrielle Gray, STEM co-ordinator, said: “All year groups have really enjoyed finding out more about engineering, particularly discovering which local projects have been worked on by the engineers. Afterwards, the children were bursting with ideas about solutions they could design for the Primary Engineer Programme competition!”