Raising Aspirations through Aviation – read our evaluation report of the Schools Build-a-Plane Challenge

Six schools were involved in leading build-a-plane projects in their areas, some also working in partnership with other local schools:

• Yateley school, Hampshire with its partner schools, Court Moor School and Kings College in Guildford, was the first school to receive their aircraft kit in 2009.
• Marling School, Gloucestershire with its partner school, Stroud High School, was the second school to receive their aircraft kit.
• Bridge Learning Campus, Hartcliffe, near Bristol, was the third school to receive their kit in 2010.
• Ercall Wood Technology College, Shropshire, with assistance from Phoenix School, was the fourth school to receive its aircraft kit in 2011.
• Ormiston NEW Academy, Wolverhampton, was the fifth school to receive its kit in 2012.
• Ernesford Grange Community Academy, Coventry, was the sixth and final school in the programme to receive its kit in 2012.

Key findings include the significant impact that building a light aircraft has had on pupils not only in terms of STEM learning, but also on developing softer skills, particularly teamwork and communication skills. This is due in part to the wider public engagement programme that the schools supported, taking their builds to a variety of major public events including air shows and STEM fairs where they showcased their work to the general public. In many cases these activities had a major impact in developing participating pupils’ confidence and sense of pride in their achievements. Yateley and Marling Schools also made aviation history when their aircraft flew at the Farnborough International Air Show in 2014, the first planes built by schools to fly at the show, followed by the Ercall Wood aircraft in 2016.

In ‘lessons learnt’ some key issues have been identified such as the need for the engineering community to better understand the role of teachers and head teachers and the challenges they face in delivering real life engineering experiences alongside other external performance targets, particularly league tables and education inspections which generally put exam results first.

Nonetheless, from the perspective of a charity like the RAeS, the impact that SBAP has had, not only in developing pupils’ STEM skills and interest, but also through imparting some of the ‘values’ of aviation such as having a safety mindset and working within an ‘honesty culture’ environment has inspired the RAeS to continue with similar projects which provide hands-on engineering opportunities and also demonstrate the power of aviation to bring communities together and change lives.