On Wednesday 20 March, pupils from nine Warwickshire primary schools gathered at Porterbrook’s Long Marston Rail Innovation Centre for a celebration event with Primary Engineer.
The event was a chance to celebrate the achievements of students who took part in the year-long Rail Programme. This saw them team up with engineers from rolling stock leasing company Porterbrook to research and build their own model trains.
This Rail Programme is delivered across the UK through Primary Engineer, a not-for-profit organisation whose vision is to ensure all children and pupils achieve their full potential through engagement with engineering.
This is the second year Porterbrook has funded the Rail Programme for schools around Warwickshire through Primary Engineer.
Porterbrook’s COO Ben Ackroyd said: “I’m delighted to host Primary Engineer at the Long Marston Rail Innovation Centre for the second year. Our engineers are leading some of the most exciting innovations taking place in the railway today. It’s been great to share that enthusiasm and passion, and to hopefully inspire the next generation of future engineers.”
Year 5/6 Teacher at Dunnington Primary School Dave Palmer said: “The program in my class was an exciting challenge and we had some great help from our engineer. We did the build in about a day and a half and had a great time.”
During the celebration event last week, a variety of prizes were awarded to the students from Best Theme to Best Communicator.
One pupil reflected, “I’ve learnt that whatever you do you have to be precise otherwise things might not go according to plan,” while another commented, “I really like doing the body and making the wheels work, it’s quite fun. My dad is an engineer and I want to be like him.”
Contract Manager at Primary Engineer Sarah Tanswell said: “The core idea of the company is obviously inspiring children to understand that engineering is a worthwhile career, really engaging with STEM in the classroom and making sure its across curricular activity. We’ve had so many wonderful comments already and the children are very excited, giving us loads of drawings and celebrating the builds going down the ramp.”
Porterbrook’s Operations Manager at Long Marston Phil Handford said: “My dad helped me when I was four years of age with engineering, and I fell in love with it from that point. I’m hoping that some of these young kids today from what they’ve taken in this experience will become an engineer, whether it’s in the railway, car industry or wherever that may be.”
