Year 7 pupils celebrate win following national STEM competition

A Year 7 class passionate about science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) subjects has been celebrating following their win at a national engineering event.

The session ran on Zoom and welcomed a guest engineer who was interviewed about his job and the skills required within his role.

The students, along with more than 100 others from across the country, completed short tasks to generate ideas around the design of a 'car of the future’.

Despite the activities ranging from key stage 2 to key stage 3, there were some incredible ideas by pupils at The Portsmouth Academy that were recognised by the judges, including a design that included self-fitting car seats so parents wouldn’t need to worry about buying new car seats for their children.

Laura Watford, the lead for STEM at the Academy, says she is proud of the efforts of the aspiring engineers.

She said: "I am incredibly proud of 7GRN and what they have achieved within this competition. To be recognised nationally as a team who are creative and imaginative when it comes to engineering is encouraging, and for them to win £200 will allow us to invest in future STEM activities across the school too."

The whole class participated, and it was their combined entries that demonstrated such innovation and a diverse set of ideas to better protect people in the future, where self-driving cars may be a reality.

Safwan, who was a member of the team, says STEM subjects and activities are important. They said: "The future is all about building and improving ourselves. The technology side is essential for us to grow."

Ruby-Mae said: "Most jobs today need you to show the skills and knowledge from the 4 areas of STEM."