St George's CE Academy Pupils Explore the Future of Renewable Energy with OnPath Energy

The future of renewable energy

We are delighted to share that Year Five pupils at St George's CE Academy have been taking part in an exciting renewable energy project in partnership with OnPath Energy, one of the UK's leading onshore wind farm developers and operators.

The project challenged pupils to use real-life data to evaluate potential locations for an onshore wind farm, drawing on their communication and reasoning skills to reach considered conclusions. OnPath Energy, which built and operates the nearby Moor House and Lambs Hill Wind Farms, worked closely with the school to provide authentic regional data and project information, giving the pupils a genuine insight into how decisions are made in the renewable energy sector.

As part of the project, six female pupils visited OnPath Energy's Sunderland headquarters to meet the team and learn more about the wide range of careers available in renewables. The visit coincided with International Women in Engineering Day and gave the girls the opportunity to hear first-hand from professionals, including electrical engineer Leah Pearson, about their career journeys and day-to-day roles in the industry.

St George's CE Academy is one of three of our schools piloting the renewable energy module, alongside Bishopton Redmarshall CE Primary School and Wark C of E Primary School, with plans to roll it out more widely across our Trust in due course.

Deputy Headteacher Sarah Cox reflected on the impact of the project: “The children have loved working on this topic and have worked really well together in using the material in front of them to reach carefully considered conclusions. They’ve been fully engaged with the information presented to them and clear on how they were going to approach the tasks that they were set together, with a huge amount of thought and effort going into their conclusions.”

We are excited to see this module expand across more of our schools and are grateful to OnPath Energy for making this such a rich and meaningful experience for our pupils. Projects like this are a wonderful example of what can be achieved when schools and industry work together, and we look forward to seeing where this journey takes our young people next.