14 Year 9 Design and Technology pupils had a great  day out at Amey Engineering with Mrs Mannings and the Amey team, gaining insight into civil engineering and especially, opportunities for women.

The day started with a goody bag for every pupil including a reusable water bottle ready-labelled with their names! Throughout the day they used all of their STEM subjects as well as creativity in fantastic teamwork to tackle a design brief based on a real-life Amey project - the transformation of road, traffic and transport arrangements on The Strand in Liverpool 1.

Working in small groups led by a brilliant team of expert civil and environmental engineers they worked on the forthcoming Strand road engineering project and learned how to design and draw a road to scale using specialist architectural tools, giant maps, live satellite maps, mental maths and calculators. They had to consider cost, traffic flow, directions, traffic lights, crossings, central reservations, different kinds of road transport (to scale), the different kinds of people who would use the road as well as the businesses nearby and any listed buildings.

In particular, they had to  bear in mind the impact of the design on the environment. Their resulting designs and supporting write-ups were displayed and judged by the team. There was real team spirit and friendly rivalry. Medb was determined to get a photo holding her team's challenge cup next to Ellie's considerably smaller but still brilliant cup! Everyone was a winner.

The girls were fantastic and were brilliant ambassadors for the school. Currently only 6% of engineers are women and if today is anything to go by, there will be a lot more budding engineers in the future. A big thanks also to Mr Shaw for being our driver today!