Inspiring children through the Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) curriculum at Olney Infant Academy has led to 4 of their children being awarded certificates as Young Engineers in a national competition.

Recently, Olney Infant Academy held an inspirational STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) day where all pupils from Early Years Foundation Stage to Year 2 took part in engineering activities. As part of British Science Week and exploring the theme of ‘Time’, the school organised activities for the children to participate in. The focus was primarily on learning about engineering. However, Mr. Mooney, the PE teacher, integrated PE activities with the Science Week theme of ‘time.’ Additionally, Mrs. Lukic, the Forest School teacher, conducted outdoor planting and growing activities, also tied to the theme of ‘time,’ involving the entire school over two days.

Examples of the children’s work created were submitted to the Primary Engineer Leaders Award competition. Over 71,000 pupils from across the UK entered the competition, going through two rigorous rounds of grading by professional engineers. Each region awarded two winners and two highly commended entries per year group.

Four children from Olney Infant Academy were awarded winning certificates to recognise their particular accomplishments in the competition as budding engineers.  Early July, the winners and school representatives attended a prestigious award ceremony at Milton Keynes College. During this special event, the four children were presented with framed certificates, trophies and badges, celebrating their remarkable achievements.

These are some of the comments from the children who received certificates “I built an electric drum to play the basics and received a medal for it. I felt great!”. “I am really proud of myself and happy.” “I can’t believe I won an engineer award. I was so happy.”

Mrs Gill Hardy, Computing Lead at Olney Infant Academy, led the development of STEM Day. She said: “It was wonderful to see all of our children being engineers and designing something to sort out a problem as part of the ‘If you were an engineer what would you do?’ competition https://www.primaryengineer.com/leaders-award-competition/.  Whilst investigating this big question the children learnt about different engineers and how they got to become engineers.  The children were also so lucky to have Paul Cooper, from our local community, come in to talk to each class about his experiences and knowledge of being an engineer in the Royal Navy.  Paul had such a wonderful day with all the children answering their questions and seeing the children so captivated by what he was saying”.

Headteacher Sarah Armitage said: “We strive to provide opportunities for our pupils to develop skills for the future, and STEM activities are an important part of this. The children showed great creativity, teamwork and resilience during the challenges. We are very proud of all the children for their achievements and are delighted for our four winners. Congratulations to them!”

Olney Infant Academy nurtures future engineers and innovators by providing engaging learning opportunities like the recent STEM Day and is committed to developing skills such as problem-solving, creativity and teamwork in their pupils to prepare them for the future.  The school, based in Olney, is part of Inspiring Futures through Learning (IFtL) a multi-academy trust of 16 primary schools across Milton Keynes and Northamptonshire. IFtL aims to achieve the best possible outcomes for children through school-to-school support, shared expertise and collaborative working. Each school within the trust has its own unique character but shares the vision of inspiring the futures of us all through learning together.