On Friday, June 30, nine pupils from St Giles on the Heath were invited to attend the University of the West of England to receive awards for their engineering designs. 

All pupils from Year 1 to Year 6 had taken part in a competition entitled ‘If you were an engineer what would you do?’. 

They had interviewed a number of engineers from varying roles in industry and had used what they had found out to identify problems they face in the world and to design a solution to these problems. 

There were 48,000 entries nationally which were then judged regionally with two winners and a highly commended in each year group.

All the designs were judged by industry engineers. A small proportion of these were then shortlisted to be judged further. St Giles on the Heath School produced a grand total of 33 entries that were shortlisted which was an amazing achievement. 

Following the shortlisting, the following children were Highly Commended: Luka Witchells (year 3), Iona Price (Year 4), William Slater (Year 4) Katie Fry (Year 6). 

St Giles on the Heath School also produced 5 winners in their age group: Kobe Perry (Year 1) with a dog laser alarm; Elouise Granger (Year 2) with ear protectors; Lottie Smith (Year 3) with an ice cream sleeve; Isla Jones (Year 4) with an electric aeroplane plug in device and Thomas Coombs (Year 6) with a blind person’s chess board.

Elouise Granger also won the Judges Award for 2023. The judges were particularly impressed with her design which incorporated headphones for each child in a class to hear the teacher through. This has many advantages for all children but particularly for neurodiverse pupils who find noise a challenge as the classroom would be very quiet and they would be able to concentrate whilst not standing out from others in the class. 

Mrs Taylor, science lead at St Giles, ran the competition and is incredibly proud of the way all the children got thoroughly involved in the project and of the high standard of all the entries from the school.