Students from St Benedict’s School have won a prestigious award at the annual Sellafield Excellence Awards, following on from their work in the Engineering Education Scheme (EES) last year.
The EES links teams of Year 12 students and their teacher with local companies, to work on real scientific, engineering and technological problems.
The Sixth Form students took part in the national scheme last year, and were mentored by Sam Edwards, Amelia Moore and Jake Nicholson from Sellafield Ltd. Their project won the award for ‘Socio Impact’ at the Sellafield event last week.
Jake Nicholson from Sellafield Ltd, decided to enter the team and their project into the Sellafield Excellence Awards, and was extremely pleased when they were shortlisted: “We received brilliant feedback from the shortlisting panel, and were selected as excellent by the judges. I wanted the St Benedict’s students to be at the awards to present their work, as they have delivered it and put all of the work in.”
“The team were able to identify and test three potential methods which have been taken on by the Sellafield plant. This is the first time in EES & Sellafield history that a concept has been taken on like this.”
The team of students worked on a project entitled ‘Increase Drum Loading for AGR Graphite’ and at the EES Celebration of Achievement Day back in April, were awarded the ‘Best Economic Contribution to Business Award.’
This team consisted of students, Joe Moore, Meagen Byers, Grace Park and Team Leader Joseph Brennan. Joseph said of the experience:
“The EES Scheme gave us a further insight into the world of work and we gained experience that will certainly benefit us in our future careers.”
“Our award-winning team were working with Sellafield Ltd on a problem that they were encountering during their dismantling and disposal of Advanced Gas-Cooled Reactor fuel elements.”
“We learned invaluable skills such as co-operation, leadership and the ability to meet deadlines. We tested our ideas at engineering workshops at Teesside University, and constructed a professional report about our research and findings.”
Mr James, Science Teacher at St Benedict’s comments: “The students have surpassed themselves. On the day the students worked seamlessly alongside the mentors from Sellafield to present their stand and the value of the EES scheme to its full value.”
“The judges were extremely complimentary of the students and how they were able to deliver such a strong project. The students have done extremely well, especially being put up against engineers and projects that had much more experience and funding behind them.”
The students attended the awards ceremony on Thursday, 11th October at Energus, along with a significant number of other shortlisted employees from Sellafield Ltd.
