Local schools receive awards for STEM achievements

The pupils had taken part in Primary Engineer’s annual UK STEM competition. 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 40 pupils from schools in the region being celebrated.

Congratulations to all the pupils, including Year 1 pupil Daniela from The Pilgrim School Borstal whose idea “The Strawberry Robot” stood out for the judges and won the special ‘Judges Award’. Daniela enjoys animals, gardening and strawberries but often finds the black birds and magpies eat all the strawberries. Her “Strawberry Robot” which runs on solar power energy, will guard the strawberry patch and features a camera and a colourful design to deter the birds.

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. There were two prototypes unveiled at the ceremony. The first was “The Medication Calendar”, brought to life by Canterbury Christ Church University, based on the idea of Year 7 student, Adela, from St Johns Catholic Comprehensive Secondary School. The second was “The Hummingbird3000”, brought to life by Thales, based on the idea of Year 5 student, Alexander, from The Pilgrim School.

Primary Engineer were joined by Kirsti Godson, Head of Social Impact at Thales, Paul Camplisson Principal Propulsion Surveyor/Specialist Production & Propulsion, Design & Certification at Civil Aviation Authority and Nicola Joyce, Technical Instructor Engineering at Canterbury Christ Church University for the presentation to pupils on the night.

“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/