Greater Manchester schools receive awards for STEM achievements

An awards and exhibition event was held on 15th July in Rochdale Council, which showcased and celebrated local school pupils across Greater Manchester 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 32 pupils from schools across Greater Manchester being celebrated.

Congratulations to all the pupils, including Year 4 pupil Lily from Light Oaks Junior School, whose idea “Crisis Call” stood out for the judges and won the special ‘Judges Award’. The idea helps people walk home safely.

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. The Rainbow Glasses prototype was unveiled at the ceremony, brought to life by Thales, based on the idea of Year 5 student, Millie, from Light Oaks Junior School.

Primary Engineer were joined by Josh Housley Apprentice Engineering Technical Assistant from Rolls Royce SMR and Lee Davies, Scrum Master from Thales did a brilliant job helping hand out the awards, making every young winner feel proud and celebrated. We were also joined by the Mayor of Rochdale, Councillor Janet Emsley.

“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/