<p>From turtles and sheep to cars and castles, Porterbrook engineers were thoroughly impressed with the unique model trains presented by primary school students at the Primary Engineer celebration event held on Wednesday 19<sup>th</sup> March. </p>
<p>Hosted at the Long Marston Rail Innovation Centre, the event marked the conclusion of a year-long programme where Porterbrook engineers were paired with 11 local Warwickshire primary schools to bring engineering to life in the classroom. </p>
<p>This Rail Programme is a Primary School programme which is delivered across the UK through Primary Engineer, a not-for-profit organisation whose vision is to ensure all children and pupils achieve their full potential through engagement with engineering.</p>
<p>This is the third year Porterbrook have sponsored the programme for its neighbouring schools around Long Marston, and over 2,000 children have taken part. </p>
<p><strong>Ben Ackroyd, Porterbrook COO, said:</strong> “We talk about getting young children involved in STEM subjects and this is exactly what they’ve been doing. Learning how to build the model but also the problem-solving skills which they learn along the way are really important. Those are core skills to engineering.”</p>
<p><strong>Lindy Gascoigne, Teacher at St Mary’s CofE Primary School, said</strong>: “To break out of the classroom and do something hands on and practical has been really special for some of our children.”</p>
<p><strong>Andrew Norris, Head of Partnerships at Primary Engineer, said:</strong> “It’s really fantastic the way the engineers throw themselves into working with the children. Every school receives the training and that’s the real key so that the teachers actually have the knowledge to be able to run the programme.”</p><figure><img src="{asset:18783:url}" data-image="18783"></figure>
