East England pupils celebrated for STEM Achievements at Anglia Ruskin University
An awards and exhibition event was held on 26th June at Anglia Ruskin University in Chelmsford, which showcased and celebrated local school pupils across East England for their engineering ideas submitted to the Primary Engineer annual UK STEM competition.
These pupils had taken part in a national competition, run by educational not-for-profit Primary Engineer, where they answered the question “If you were an engineer, what would you do?”. Pupils interview an engineer, learn how to think like an Engineer and are tasked with identifying a problem in the world around them and coming up with a creative solution to that problem.
Entries were then graded by local industry professionals before going to a regional judging panel were they picked two winners and two highly commended for each year group.
The highly commended and winning pupils were awarded trophies and framed certificates of their ideas, with 36 pupils from schools in the area being celebrated.
Congratulations to all the pupils, including Year 5 pupil Helena from St Helens Catholic Junior School, whose idea “Talking Gloves” stood out for the judges and won the special ‘Judges Award’. Her idea is a pair of gloves fitted with sensors that translate what you sign making communication more accessible.
Every year University and Industry Partners of Primary Engineer select an idea to turn into a working Prototype from the previous year’s winning designs. Two prototypes were unveiled at the ceremony. The first, The Moving Bunkbed prototype, brought to life by Anglia Ruskin University, based on the idea of year 1 student, Poppy. The second, Heat Sensors prototype, brought to life by AVEVA, based on the idea of Year 2 student Veda.
Primary Engineer were joined by Laurie Butler, Pro Vice Chancellor at Anglia Ruskin University, Felicity Chadwick-Histed, Trustee at Royal Air Force Charitable Trust, Allison Orton, R&D Development Manager at AVEVA, Aron Gunn, General Manager at EDL Energy and Andrew Tomlins, Business Director at Eurovia for the presentation to pupils on the night.
Felicity Chadwick-Histed, Trustee at Royal Air Force Charitable Trust said “The Royal Air Force Charitable Trust, with DXC Technology, is delighted to be a national Partner of Primary Engineer’s “If You Were An Engineer, What Would You Do?” programme. As a Charity our purpose is to inspire young people to fulfil their potential in air, space and technology and so it was a huge honour and pleasure to present awards to, and celebrate the achievement of, young people with amazing ideas from the East of England.”
Huge thank you to our national and regional partners for helping us bring engineering to this area: Boeing, RAF Charitable Trust, DXC Technology UKI, Nippon Gases, National Grid, UK Atomic Energy Authority, Thales, Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE), Siemens Energy, AVEVA, EDL, Eurovia and Anglia Ruskin University.
“If you were an Engineer, what would you do” is an annual, national competition free to enter for all 3-19 school pupils. Entries are open now for 2025-2026 and schools can register now at www.leadersaward.com
Primary Engineer Public Exhibitions and Award Ceremonies continue all over the UK through to July, with thousands of pupils engineering ideas being displayed for all to see. Find out more: https://leadersaward.com/exhibitions-and-events/