Students were left inspired after 35 engineers visited their school – along with an Aston Martin and a helicopter. 


‘Meet the Engineers’ formed part of Thomas Hardye’s celebration of British Science Week and gave students the opportunity to see how the skills they develop in their science studies can be applied to real life. 


They were able to ask questions about a range of career pathways and find out the wide variety of activities that engineers do in their daily work. 


Demonstrations ranged from electrical engineering to bioengineering, supply chain engineering, civil, coastal, aeronautical, avionics, mechanical, chemical engineering, gas detection and even how smoothies are made and distributed. 


Aston Martin Lagonda engineers arrived at lunchtime in a prototype DB11 that they had driven down from Gaydon, Warwickshire. 


If that wasn’t enough of a crowd pleaser, the Fleet Air Arm managed to land a Merlin helicopter on the school playing field, despite the foggy conditions. 


Students were allowed to look around the multimillion pound aircraft and ask air and ground crew questions before watching the it take off again to return to its base in Yeovilton. 


More than 500 students took part in the various talks, activities and workshops throughout the day and described the engineers as “fun problem solvers who create things that make human lives better.”


Judith Wardlaw, the school’s science and industry partnership co-ordinator, said: “The day was an invaluable enrichment opportunity for students and will surely encourage them to understand the value of their cross-curricular STEM school studies and maybe even to consider a career in engineering.”


A spokesman for the school thanked the organisations that took part – including Airbus Defence and Space; Biotrack Ltd; Costain; the University of Southampton; Honeywell Analytics; Imperial College; Innocent Drinks; Jaguar Land Rover; Mars Petcare UK; MOD Apache Team; QinetiQ; Rolls Royce and Siemens – for “sharing their expertise with our students and bringing the exciting world of engineering prospects so vividly to life for them.”