Wales pupils win big in national engineering competition
An exciting awards presentation and exhibition event was held on 2nd July at the University of South Wales, which showcased and celebrated primary and secondary school pupils from across Wales for their engineering ideas submitted to the ‘If you were an engineer, what would you do?’ annual, UK-wide competition.
The winning and highly commend pupils from Reception through to Year 10 had taken part in a national competition, run by educational not-for-profit Primary Engineer, where they created ingenious designs to make the world a better place through engineering and technology, solving problems and improving quality of life. To answer the question, “If you were an engineer, what would you do?” the pupils interview an engineering professional, learn how to think like an engineer by identifying a problem in the world around them and coming up with a creative solution to that problem.
Over 70,000 pupils took part across the UK this year with the entries all graded by engineering and technology professionals before going to a final judging panel in each of the 21 areas. The judging panel in Wales selected two winners and two highly commended for each year group who attended the event to be presented with their awards.
The highly commended and winning pupils were awarded trophies and framed certificates of their ideas, with 35 pupils from schools across Wales being celebrated.
Congratulations to all the pupils, including Year 9 pupil Aneira from Ysgol Uwchradd Tywyn, whose idea “Stitch Smart Hook” stood out for the judges and won the special ‘Judges Award’. Her idea is an interactive crochet hook that helps crocheters like herself track stitches and rows effortlessly.
Primary Engineer were joined by their Welsh Partners for the presentation to pupils on the night. Luan Al-Haddad, Course Leader, Civil Engineering from the University of South Wales and Dr Leshan Uggalla, Senior Lecturer and Researcher from the University of South Wales along with Wing Commander Russ Barnes, who heads up the RAF STEM Programme joined Chris Rochester, Head of Partnerships for South and South West England and Wales from Primary Engineer.
Laura Roberts, STEM Outreach Officer at the University of South Wales, said: “It’s great for the University to sponsor the Primary Engineer competition in Wales, and to offer our support to the development of the next generation of engineers from across Wales. USW is a leader in the development of STEM subjects and works closely with school pupils of all ages to inspire them to develop skills which could lead to a career in engineering, science, or technology. We hope that seeing the facilities on offer at the University will give these young engineers a taste of what higher education has to offer, and what awaits them if they choose that to go into the STEM sector.”
Chris Rochester, Head of Partnerships for South England, South West and Wales at Primary Engineer, said, “The primary and secondary pupils blew us away this year with their creativity, ingenuity and empathy. The awards event is the culmination of the competition this year and gives the winning and highly commended pupils the accolades and recognition for their incredible designs all of which would make the world a better place. It was wonderful to see the pupils and their families along with their teachers celebrating our winners along with our fantastic university partner, University of South Wales and the RAF who partner with us in Wales and Scotland. We look forward to even more schools taking part in Wales next year, with teachers being able to take advantage of dual language lesson plans and resources to support the competition which is completely free to all schools as well as having opportunities to bring engineering professionals into the classroom to meet and inspire the pupils.”
“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/