Jersey pupils showcase their exceptional STEM achievements at celebration and awards events
Two events run by education not-for-profit, Primary Engineer, have recently been held at Highlands College in Jersey, bringing together education and industry to celebrate local pupils for their STEM achievements.
Companies and organisations such as Jersey Electricity and the Jersey Construction Council have been partnering with Primary Engineer on the ‘If you were an engineer, what would you do?’ competition and the Primary Engineer Construction Programme working with teachers and pupils across the island.
Of the two recent events, the first was the annual awards and exhibition for the ‘If you were an engineer, what would you do?’ competition which again saw over 1,000 Jersey pupils participate. The event held on 10th June, with competition partners Jersey Electricity and Skills Jersey showcased and celebrated pupils across Jersey for their engineering ideas, creativity and ingenuity.
Having interviewed engineering professionals, the pupils had to think like an engineer by identifying a problem in the world and coming up with a creative solution to it, answering the question “If you were an engineer, what would you do?”. All 1000+ entries were then graded by local engineering professionals with shortlisted designs going to a final judging panel of engineering and educational professionals who selected two winning and two highly commended designs for each year group.
The highly commended and winning pupils were awarded trophies and framed certificates of their ideas, with 42 pupils from schools in Jersey being celebrated for their exceptional designs.
Mark Preece, Chief Operating Officer at Jersey Electricity commended the pupils “We’re incredibly proud to support the Primary Engineer programme and to celebrate the brilliant young minds across Jersey. It’s inspiring to see how pupils look at the world around them and come up with imaginative, thoughtful solutions to real problems. Their creativity and passion for engineering give us great hope for the future. Every single entry showed ingenuity and heart — and every pupil should be proud of what they’ve achieved.”
Congratulations to all the pupils, including Year 5 pupil Emilia from Jersey College Preparatory School, whose idea “The Dementia Diary” stood out for the judges and won the special ‘Judges Award’.
Excitingly, 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 and this year the ‘Safety Cycle’ was unveiled at the ceremony.
Brought to life by an engineering team from Kingston University (who support the competition in London and Jersey) the prototype saw the idea of Year 5 pupil, Savannah, from Jersey College Preparatory School brought into reality and Savannah was at the awards to help unveil it!
At the Awards Primary Engineer were joined by Mark Preece, Chief Operating Officer at Jersey Electricity, Hannah Samson, Skills Development and Intelligence Team Leader at Skills Jersey and Sergey Khaustov, Course Leader at Kingston University for the presentation to pupils on the night as well as Minister for Education and Lifelong Learning Rob Ward who delivered the closing remarks congratulating all pupils for their exceptional designs.
Stuart Penn, Head of Skills Jersey from Skills Jersey said, “Skills Jersey are delighted to support both Primary Engineer’s competition and programme. Connecting young people with experienced engineering professionals in this way empowers the next generation of innovators to create and design ideas which solve real-world problems. These inspirational innovations not only spark creativity; they provide invaluable hands-on opportunities to help build the future of engineering.”
The second event, a Celebration Event held on 11th June, was the culmination of the Primary Engineer Construction Programme run in partnership with Jersey Construction Council and funded by their members Ports of Jersey, AFM, Skills Jersey, Ashbe Construction, Ronez, Andium Homes, 4 Group, ROK Group and Geomarine.
With the support of construction and engineering professionals from Jersey Construction Council, teachers from 12 schools were trained by Primary Engineer and provided with comprehensive classroom resources and enough kit and tools for 60 pupils per school to take part. Construction professionals from Jersey Construction Council visited the participating schools supporting pupils in Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2 with their design and build projects.
At the Celebration Event, more construction and engineering professionals from Jersey Construction Council and its member companies tested and judged the builds and interviewed the children who were excited to explain the research they had carried out, the aspects of the project they liked best, and the engineering knowledge they had acquired through the process. The day culminated with awards being presented by the Construction Council to the winning teams from St Peter’s School, Mont Nicolle School, D’Auvergne School, St Saviour’s School, La Moye School, Rouge Bouillon School, Grouville School, Grands Vaux School, St Mary’s School and First Tower School.
Adrian De Gruchy – Chair Jersey Construction Council from Jersey Construction Council said, “The Jersey Construction Council and the sponsor companies were proud to be part of the Primary Engineer Program in schools and attend the Awards Event. The student representatives from the various primary schools were all passionate when explaining to the judges about what they had learnt, how they had developed and adapted their designs.”
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Editors Notes:
This was distributed by Primary Engineer. If you have any follow-up questions, please get in touch with Primary Engineer’s Media Relations and Communications Manager (steph.shencoe@primaryengineer.com).
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About Primary Engineer:
Primary Engineer®, since 2005, have developed an engineering curriculum that spans Early Years, Primary, Secondary and Further Education institutions. Its core aims include; the development of children and young people through engagement with engineering, the promotion of engineering careers through inspiring programmes and competitions, the development of engineering skills for teachers and practitioners addressing the inequalities in engineering.
We developed a project-based learning approach to education which enables children and pupils to engage with practical math’s and science alongside creative problem solving and literacy. It has been described as STEM by Stealth® due to the integrated curriculum nature of the programmes which also develop resilience and curiosity.
Strong links to engineers and the industries they work in provides an opportunity for both pupils and teachers to expand their knowledge of careers, career paths and opportunities.