Inverness pupils get road expertise

Pupils and teachers from nine schools in Inverness, Nairn and The Black Isle attended a celebration event on Tuesday 30 April in UHI Inverness to champion pupils’ success as part of Transport Scotland’s schools engagement programme on both the A96 Dualling Inverness to Nairn (including Nairn Bypass) scheme, and the nearby A9/A82 Longman Junction Improvement scheme.

The event let local school children present their projects to a judging panel from Transport Scotland and Jacobs, the design consultancy for both schemes.

Training has been delivered this year by specialist educational supplier Primary Engineer to 15 primary and secondary school teachers in 13 schools situated on or near the routes of the two schemes. Engineering presentations and practical engineering tasks were run by Jacobs with nine schools and reached approximately 550 pupils.

Michael Matheson Cabinet Secretary for Transport, Infrastructure and Connectivity said:

“This Government is committed to upgrading the A96 between Inverness and Aberdeen to dual carriageway and we are also progressing our plans to upgrade the traffic bottleneck at Longman roundabout in Inverness. We recognise the importance of benefitting the communities who live on or near our major road projects as we design and build the new road.

“Our schools engagement on our major road projects is leaving a legacy for the future, training teachers to deliver a programme for pupils in local schools which helps them develop an interest in the STEM subjects of science, technology, engineering and maths.

“At the Celebration event at UHI Inverness, engineers from Transport Scotland and the consultants designing the section of the A96 to be dualled between Inverness and Nairn and the much anticipated upgrade of the Longman roundabout took the time to offer their expertise which will help inspire the children to consider being the engineers of the future.”

Chris Rochester, UK director at Primary Engineer said:

“The partnership with Transport Scotland and Jacobs is providing excellent opportunities for pupils along the route to work with engineers in the classroom on the Primary Engineer programme. The projects allow pupils and teachers to engage with engineering in an exciting and meaningful way and for pupils to develop essential skills both practical and thinking skills such as problem finding and problem solving.”

Schools in attendance were:

• Auldearn Primary
• Crown Primary
• Dalneigh Primary
• Milton of Leys Primary
• Munlochy Primary
• Cromarty Primary
• Cradlehall Primary
• Tore Primary
• Nairn Academy

Transport Scotland and Jacobs teamed up with Primary Engineer, a not for profit organisation which has national programmes that enable teachers to embed engineering into their teaching curriculum. The organisation works with schools and professional engineers around the UK to give pupils the opportunity to work on projects to gain a new perspective on careers in the profession – highlighting just how important STEM subjects are to the world in which we all live.