World Engineering Day: NHEHS Students Buck The Trend

1 March 2024 | Share:

Ahead of World Engineering Day on March 4th, our Year 12 Engineering Reps led an enlightening assembly last week. They featured key areas of Engineering: Mechanical, Civil, Aerospace and how Engineering can help create a more sustainable world for the future. They included a wide range of topics, including “The Line” – NEOM project in Saudi Arabia, piezoelectric roads to aerodynamics in Formula 1 cars! The NHEHS Engineering Programme 2023-24 includes F1 in Schools, SmallPeice Trust Glider Project, Industrial Cadets Programme, UK Space Design Competition, Faraday Challenge, CREST Award, First LEGO League, and Arkwright Scholarship.

Our Year 12 Engineering Reps, Aisha M, Emmi A-N, Harinee R, Sophie A and Anjali K run clubs every week including Glider Club and Lego Robotics. This week we are looking forward to starting Industrial Cadets (Bronze) for Year 9, with our EDT Mentor, Dr Liz Ainsbury coming in on Wednesday for the first time.

According to Engineering UK, only 16.5% of the total engineering workforce are women. This is due to the low number of girls studying STEM subjects at school. After GCSEs, only 35% of STEM students are female and at university this drops to 25%, according to Women in Tech UK.

At NHEHS we have a strong history of encouraging pupils to enjoy STEM subjects and co-curricular activities, and we even have an Engineering Programme. The results speak for themselves – 39% of our leavers go to study STEM related courses at university, way above the national average.

Lydia, one of our Year 13 students who is keen to pursue an engineering career, has participated and led several of the Engineering initiatives and clubs. This included working alongside architects and engineers on our new Junior School build during 2023, which was featured in this film produced by the GDST. The film was part of a GDST series championing the uniqueness of our pupils and will be shown as part of a wider GDST campaign.