Member Article

Wingate students build bridges with second annual award

Students at Wellfield Community School in Wingate are celebrating their success in winning a regional competition run by construction industry specialists including the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) North East.

The Wonder Crossing competition saw school teams from across the North East create their own river crossings. The annual project is aimed at informing and inspiring young people on the subject of careers in civil engineering.

This is the second consecutive “Wonder win” for Wellfield Community School, who won the Sporting Wonder Challenge in 2012 - a competition inspired by the London Olympics.

In the Wonder Crossing competition, the students from Wellfield came up with a bridge design which caught the judges’ attention at the event’s final at Hartlepool College, where three teams displayed their projects.

Representatives of ICE North East, the Northern Counties Builders’ Federation, CECA – the Civil Engineering Contractors’ Association, and Owen Pugh, made up the judging panel. Penny Marshall, interim regional director of ICE North East said: “The designs and model created by the Wellfield Community School team showed a strong understanding of the challenges which face civil engineers on a regular basis, and we are pleased that creativity and clear thinking has been used in tackling these as they arose. As well as having produced an excellent piece of work, I hope that the students have enjoyed a real taste of civil engineering that will remain with them as they consider career options. I hope they return to defend their crown in next year’s wonder competition - Wellfield is definitely becoming the school to beat.”

Neal Swinburn from Wellfield Community School said: “It was Another great result for engineering students at Wellfield School. The school is very proud of its engineering and construction courses where students develop problem solving and design and making skills. The Wonder Crossing Challenge gave students the opportunity to develop an idea that could be of real use to communities affected by flooding.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Penny Marshall .