South Yorkshire schools get ready to aim high in 2024

Schools from across South Yorkshire will be aiming high in 2024 with a number of learning projects run by the Vulcan to the Sky Trust and their education partner The Work-wise Foundation.

Primary and secondary school pupils will have the opportunity to take part in ‘Dr Pleming’s Operation Vulcan Design Project’, named in honour of Dr Robert Pleming, the founding Chief Executive of the charity who was responsible for returning the iconic aircraft to flight, or the ‘Get in the Spirit’ competition, named after the aircraft which was dubbed the Spirit of Great Britain.

Marc Walters, chief executive of Vulcan to the Sky Trust said: “Inspiring the future is part of our charity aims and objectives and we are extremely proud of the work we deliver, in partnership with the Work-wise Foundation to engage children and young people in STEM subject through our projects.

“The Vulcan is an awe-inspiring aircraft and remains a magnificent feat of engineering. Our primary project sees schools create sustainable models of Vulcan XH558 which will be displayed as part of an Operation Vulcan Squadron at Get up to Speed with STEM on 20 March 2024.

“These models can be created individually or as a team. All entries will be judged by visiting VIPs on the day, and the winners will be announced after the event.

“The winning team and their class will be invited for a trip to see Vulcan XH558 close up, explore the aircraft and meet some of the people involved in maintaining it and learn more about its story.”

For secondary schools students in years 8, 9 or 10 will have the opportunity to get to grips with how an ejector seat works and design and build a scale model of their own ejector seat, to be explained and demonstrated to an expert panel of judges.

John Barber, chief executive of The Work-wise Foundation said: “Our partnership with Vulcan to the Sky Trust is a fantastic collaboration that enables us to deliver thought provoking projects for schools.

“The ‘Get in the Spirit’ project sees primary children create a Vulcan inspired superhero character with a range of powers linked to Vulcan technology. Secondary school students are invited to create a graphic story or a short film that tells the story of Vulcan XH558 and its contribution to British engineering from its initial design through to the modern day and explore what its future could be.

“Both projects teach the children so much about the history, engineering and design of this amazing aircraft and we can’t wait to see the results of their hard work.”

These projects give students the opportunity to display their work at the Get Up to Speeds event at Magna in front of 5000 young people and the winning groups get the opportunity to visit XH558 and see the aircraft in its full glory.

For more information and for details on how to take part in the projects visit https://work-wise.co.uk/events-and-programmes/vulcan.html

For further information visit www.vulcantothesky.org