The organisation, whose latest campaign aims to inspire young women to become the engineers of tomorrow, has linked up with the school to provide specialist equipment for its brand-new Prep STEM Room.
Inspired to match the success of the school’s senior Greenpower race teams, girls aged from 7-11 will now have the opportunity to get behind the wheel of their own Greenpower Goblin car. Goblin cars are specifically designed to give children the chance to build their very own functioning and drivable electric car providing the opportunity for younger pupils to get hands-on with engineering.
A second car has also joined the Prep School fleet thanks to donations from the school’s generous parents.
Over 40 Prep girls now take part in the project which challenges them to design, build and drive their own electric race cars. The girls will be taking to the track early next year as they invite schoolchildren from across the county to get under the bonnet of their cars at a special day-long STEM workshop.
Sgt Craig Ainslie said: “We are absolutely delighted to be working with a school which takes such pride in encouraging girls to take the lead in engineering at all ages. STEM careers can often be very male-dominated environments and we hope the girls will be inspired to aim high and break the engineering glass ceiling.”
The RAF has also funded a number of Lego We-Do sets and Bee-Bots which aim to inspire pupils to get creative with computer coding.
There is a national shortage of people entering STEM-related industries, with an annual shortfall of 55,000 skilled engineers in the UK.
Only 13% of people working in occupations classed as STEM are women.
Head of Prep School, Miss Annabel Ramsey said: “We are delighted to welcome the RAF on board. Seeing all the STEM opportunities which our senior school pupils have, we’re not at all surprised that the Prep girls wanted to get in on the action. Every one of our pupils has already been getting really stuck in and their enthusiasm says so much. As a school with a strong reputation for STEM subjects we believe it is important to inspire young women to aim high no matter what their dreams are.”
The school is a firm believer in educating girls about the many STEM careers available, regularly hosting special workshops to school children from across the county. All pupils at the school study GCSEs in all three sciences.
