Children light up the city night
Youngsters from a Sunderland school helped to light up the night in the city in time for Christmas.
Children from Grindon Hall Christian School played their part in illuminating the city as part of the Sunderland Christmas Light Switch On after winning a Northern Powergrid competition to design a community themed Christmas Light.
The light, which is located in Park Lane, was illuminated ahead of the main switch-on event with the five winning pupils and their classmates treated to their own VIP festive party.
The pupils enjoyed a disco, face-painting and party food to get them in the festive spirit before the countdown to their own mini switch-on event.
The competition, now in its second year, saw pupils from schools across Sunderland take part in projects to aid their understanding of STEM (Science, English, Engineering and Maths) by attending workshops.
The workshops focused on community and the people within the community who may need extra support during a power cut, energy efficiency and design, preparing them to design a community themed Christmas light.
The winning school was announced after each school took part in a mini engineering appreciation day at the region’s electricity distributor’s training school in Durham.
The day was full of hands on fun and educational activities including off-road driving and circuit building before the children presented their ideas and design in a ‘Dragons’ Den’ style pitch to a specially selected panel of judges.
Siobhan Barton, of Northern Powergrid, said: “The Light Up Sunderland competition has proved to be an effective way to bring STEM subjects to life for the children whilst they also learn more about the communities they live in. I really love this year’s winning design and the children should be really proud of the light they have created.”
Stephanie Burras, Ahead Partnership’s Chief Executive, said: “When local employers like Northern Powergrid combine creativity and fun to create a competition like this, it really fires up young people and ignites their passion for STEM subjects. We’re delighted to help Northern Powergrid bring this competition to Sunderland for the second year.”
Joanne Maw, Principal at Grindon Hall, said: “The children have thoroughly enjoyed the competition and the VIP party was fantastic. Seeing their design lit up in the city centre is something they will never forget.”
“Something they will never forget” JANET MAW