A E Yates, as part of our commitment to engage with and give back to our local community, visited Year 6 at St Catherine’s C Of E Primary School in Horwich, Bolton on the 4th March 2024! Our colleagues Mick O’Hanlan, Saffron Ramsey and Adele Carroll started the visit with a presentation about what Civil Engineering involves and we showcased our projects as examples. We educated the pupils on all of the different job titles in the office and on site to make them aware that there are many different career options within the industry.
At the end of our presentation, we showed the pupils which machinery we often use on site which included our brand new Vacuum Excavator, a digger and a roller; this led us on to the first activity which was building construction Lego which we bought and then donated to the Year 6’s large Lego collection. The pupils were separated into different groups and completed the activity within half an hour!
After the first activity, we then surprised the pupils and made them aware that our Vacuum Excavator was outside in the playground! The pupils were then given a hard hat and a hi vis vest each and taken outside. Tom Dey, our Vac Ex driver ensured the machinery was cornered off and the pupils were given a demo. Through remotely controlling the machinery, Tom showed the Vac Ex suctioning some dirt up from the ground and then showed it tipping.
When the machinery was turned off, the pupils were allowed to come closer and we asked who would like to get into the machinery to which all of the pupils raised their hands and said yes! The Year 6 teacher Miss Urmston assisted pupils one by one into the passenger seat next to Tom where they could get a photo to take home and ask any questions to Tom about the Vac Ex.
We received fantastic feedback from Miss Urmston and the pupils of Year 6:
Miss Urmston: ‘A E Yates hosted a workshop with our Y6 pupils to help celebrate world engineering day. The day huge success. It begin with a presentation about careers within the engineering industry and the pupils had lots of opportunities to ask questions. Next, pupils had a small group Lego challenge to complete. Which engaged all the pupils and helped them to learn to work collaboratively. The highlight of the session was seeing the Vac Ex machine in action and the pupil wore PPE. They were also photographed in the cab for a souvenir. Overall everyone had a fantastic day. Thank you very much.‘
Pupil quote: ‘It was amazing to see a machine so close up. I enjoyed watching the Vac Ex work by remote control to remove the rubble. I also liked going inside the cab.‘
Pupil quote: ‘I enjoyed learning the names of different types of machinery and then building them out of Lego. I often see them around and did not know what they were called.‘
Overall, our four colleagues spent 2.5 hours with Year 6 and we donated a full Lego construction collection, ‘When I Grow Up’ books, £135 worth of Hi Vis vests which they will use to talk to and from church safely and we also donated AEY water bottles. We hope we made a positive impact and introduced Civil Engineering as a career option to all pupils; A E Yates hope to revisit the school to ensure a long term partnership.