Teachers at Walsgrave Church of England Primary School took a back seat from lessons on Monday 13 December, as graduate engineers from National Grid delivered their own lesson plans.
The 11 National Grid volunteers, whose company headquarters are based in Warwick, gave an electricity-themed morning assembly to the entire school and then spent the rest of the day teaching pupils in Years 1 and 2 an overview of electricity and electronics, using practical experiments designed for their age range.
The schoolchildren were taught about renewable energy, conductors, insulators and electrical safety. They built electric circuits and powered buzzers using mini solar panels. The practical lessons ran from after assembly at 9.30am until home time at 3pm.
The company already has a link with Walsgrave Primary as a number of its employees run an after-school science club there once a week. The club is run using an online education programme called School Power which was launched by National Grid in March this year.
School Power is a free, online education programme, designed to inspire primary school children about science and technology. The programme is available to all primary schools, and offers a visually stimulating package of lesson plans, activities and assembly presentations.
The programme was developed in response to research carried out by National Grid which revealed engineering was an undervalued industry.
National Grid’s Tom Milner, organiser of the event, said: “Getting children interested in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) subjects from a young age is vital for addressing the national skills shortage. It’s fantastic that National Grid are taking a leading role in this. It was great to have opportunity to organise the school day, and very rewarding. Thanks to all who helped make it a success”.
Cara Page, the School’s Science Coordinator, said: “The buzz in school yesterday was incredible, and the parents were amazed at how much the children knew by the end of the day!”
Commenting on the day, Kian, age 6, says: “I wanted to be a train driver but now I want to be a scientist.”
To find out more about School Power, visit http://www.nationalgrideducation.com/ . This is a free online resource available to all schools and teachers.
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For further media information only, please contact Doranna Widdicks, National Grid Media Relations, on 01926 655373.