Engineering at Lisnasharragh Primary

Lisnasharragh Primary School is a member of the Primary Engineer programme. The programme provides broad, general education for whole class groups with the emphasis on engineering. Some of our teachers have attended continual professional development courses to support the teaching of practical Maths and Science through technology linked to the wider world of engineering.

The engineering programme has been implemented in two ways this year:

• Firstly, pupils in P4 and P6 were given the opportunity to work on practical engineering projects based on structures and mechanisms, under the guidance of their teachers and an engineer from Thales who visited the classes regularly. P4 pupils were assigned with the task of building a non-propelled truck whilst the P6 pupils designed and built electric-powered vehicles.

• Secondly, several pupils took part in the Leaders award, which is nationally-run competition.

Leaders Award Competition

Pupils from P4-7, entered the Leaders Award National Engineering competition this year. The leaders award aims to introduce pupils to the world of engineering and all its diversity whilst stimulating pupils’ creative and problem-solving skills.

The competition involved pupils identifying a problem in everyday life (or beyond) and annotating a solution to it. Our entries ranged from socks designed to mop floors to solar-powered aeroplanes! The pupils met regularly with engineers from Bombardier Aerospace to discuss and develop their ideas further.

All pupils were successful in the competition achieving a mixture of passes, merits and distinctions. Three pupils received ‘distinction shortlisted’ which means that their entries have been put forward to the final which will be judged later this year.