The Rolls-Royce of Science Prizes
I’d like to start with one word, and that is WOW — Mrs Yates
This past few days has marked the end of a year of science-related activity in the school¹. We’ve been taking part in the Rolls-Royce Science Prize — an annual programme created by Rolls-Royce to increase science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) in schools. You can read more about our project — Investigation Generation — on the school website, but in brief, the project was all about putting stations in each classroom where children could do miniature experiments, from measuring and recording lung capacity, to investigating how bridges are made. These stations have meant that the children can do science at any time, rather than just one afternoon a week.
Mrs Yates has worked incredibly hard over the year to get the project up and running, and all staff at the school have embraced it — encouraging the children to come up with their own questions that they can solve using the stations. The highlight for me was the outdoor station — a birdbox with a camera installed — so the children (and staff) could watch as a bird made its nest and laid eggs, and the little fledglings grew up and made their own little nests around the school grounds.
The equipment for all this was funded by Rolls-Royce, because they liked this idea, and made us one of six finalists.
The year-long programme ended with the project teams from each of the six schools coming together, firstly to the Rolls-Royce factory in Derby, and then to the Science Museum in Kensington.
The visit to Rolls-Royce was for the Monday morning, and started with a talk about Rolls-Royce, and the wide range of STEM activities it supports. We then got a tour of the factory — specifically the bit that makes the shafts and drums for jet engines. We also got to see the technology exhibition, showcasing a load of the incredible things that Rolls-Royce have made, and are going to make over the coming years. We finished up with tour of the facility that holds versions of all the jet engines Rolls-Royce have made, for training apprentices and engineers.
It was amazing to get the opportunity to see these things — expensive machines and massive engines, but what really stood out was that everyone we spoke to was fiercely proud to work for Rolls-Royce — the quality of the things they make, and the ethos of the company.
After popping in to see the Silver Ghost (as you do), we got back on the coach for a two and a half hour drive to Kensington. The awards ceremony was to be held at the Science Museum, so after freshening up, and meeting up with Mrs Spark, we made our way there. To say we were excited is a massive understatement.
The first part of the awards ceremony was a show and tell, where we stood around a display of our project (underneath the wing of a massive biplane), and a steady stream of people came to talk to us about it.
We spoke to the Chief Exec of Rolls-Royce, Warren East; The Rt Hon Lord Drayson of Kensington; The owner of the Eden Project, Tim Smit; representatives from British Aerospace Institute, the Department for Education, British Science Association, and many many more senior figures from STEM in the UK. What was incredible was that every single person was incredibly enthusiastic about our project — they were really impressed with the way that our project had been adopted throughout the school — with all children and staff getting involved. I think, secretly, we started to think we had a chance at winning.
After this, we were ushered into the IMAX cinema for the speeches and awards. One of Rolls-Royce’s graduate trainees was compering the event, which typifies their approach to valuing their emerging talent.
Warren East, CEO of Rolls-Royce welcomed us all to the event, with special mention for all the teachers in the house (huge round of applause). He also spoke about the current state of young people in STEM (increasing / improving), and why Rolls Royce does the science prize (increasing STEM = more future workers).
We then saw the videos (produced by Rolls-Royce) of each of the 6 finalists. Ours was last, and I coincidentally got some dust or something in my eye as I watched it. What was amazing was that not only did the quality of the project come across, but so did the personality of our kids. If you haven’t seen it yet — you can watch it here, by going to the 22 minute and 40 second mark.
After this, we had a talk by Lord Drayson — tech entrepreneur, racing driver, peer. His talk really resonated with me — speaking about the importance of scientists in combatting the rise of fake news and climate-change deniers, and also the importance of growing our own scientists, because post-brexit we’re unlikely to get what we need from abroad. All pretty dark, but it had to be said.
After Lord Drayson, we had Tim Smit — owner of the Eden Project. I had heard that Tim had spoken at this event previously, and has a tendency to go off piste. He spoke about soil, and how fertile soil is likely to be disappearing in certain parts of the country within our lifetimes. More sobering talk, but again, the importance of STEM, both present and future, was brought up.
This led directly to the awards — four in all. One eco-award, presented to Portstewart Primary School, from Northern Ireland, for project called Marvellous Movers, which was all about getting little vehicles moving.
The second prize to be awarded was the People’s Choice award — voted for by employees of Rolls-Royce. This was won by Belfast School of Art, for a project around wearable technology — integrating electronics into fabric.
The runners-up for the main prize was Portstewart Primary School (again!).
The final award of the night, the big one, was last. Looking down the row, we were all nervous, and when the compere started off by describing the winners as having had an uncertain start to the competition, but growing in confidence as the project progressed, we had a pretty good idea it was us. But when they actually announced that we’d won, we were absolutely over the moon!
Mrs Yates’ acceptance speech was magnificent - you can relive the moment here, at 69 minutes and 40 seconds.
Afterwards, we went back into the Flight Hall for dessert, and loads of the people we’d spoken to before came and congratulated us and said they were delighted we’d won. People wanted to come and see us to see the investigation stations in action (so there may be a steady stream of visitors to the school over the next year, unless they were just making conversation). After some crumble or whatever we swaggered, triumphantly, back to the hotel for a cheeky lemonade.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank:
Rolls-Royce — especially Rani Gill and Nicola Swaney, for organising the Science Prize, and for holding such a fabulous event.
Neil Chattle — our mentor at Rolls-Royce. A great guy who’s worked at Rolls-Royce for many years, and believes and epitomises the values of RR. He was great at going through our diary entries and keeping us on track. Plus, he sneaked us in to see the Silver Ghost in Derby:
I want to thank the whole-school community — staff for embracing the concept of the stations, parents for getting involved, the project team for sticking with it, and making videos and writing updates, and the children for being brilliant.
But mostly, huuuuge thanks and well done to Mrs Yates, whose passion, dedication and creativity has helped make history for Tyntesfield Primary School. I look forward to being part of whatever happens next..!
- Actually the beginning!
