Three Sixth Form students and an associate member of staff from Tewkesbury Academy have completed a prestigious visit to the Palace of Westminster.
Dylan Ruscoe and Vladslav Yatsyna from Year 13 and Rhys Markey from Year 12, along with their Design and Technology technician Jerry Brown, were invited to attend an all-party Parliamentary Engineering Group (APPEG) in the Palace of Westminster.
The students listened to inspiring presentations from Professor David Balmforth, Ayo Sokale and Dr Alalea Kia, who spoke about their role as civil engineers and their involvement with engineering for clean water. The speakers addressed to a large group of students from some of the prestigious colleges and sixth form schools around the UK.
Tewkesbury Academy is very fortunate to be one of the few academies to be invited to the event, which is sponsored by businesses including Safran, a local aerospace supplier, ICE, EDF and Thales.
While there, the group also met with Tewkesbury MP Laurence Robertson, who was hosting the event, and his wife Annie, who kindly took the Tewkesbury visitors through to the house and into the public chambers of the House of Commons. There the sixth formers listened to the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, Victoria Atkins, present the second reading of the Media Bill, giving students an insight into how the parliamentary system works in the UK.
Jerry Brown said: “This was an incredible opportunity for our sixth form students to be invited to and attend. For many, this is the first opportunity to visit the house of Parliament and even London and to see British democracy first hand.
“The opportunity to listen to three leaders in their own engineering roles and hear about their journey getting them to the position they now hold is inspiring for the youth of today and our engineers of tomorrow.”
