A-LEVEL students from Pershore High School got the chance to showcase months of work at a celebration and assessment day in Solihull.

Stephen Maughan, Chris Jeffries, Matthew Smith and Oliver Sinfield were among groups of students displaying their innovative solutions to the real world of work' problems at the event at Cranmore Park Exhib-ition Suite, Shirley, Solihull.

The celebration day was the final part of this year's engineering education scheme (EES), a national programme providing talented year 12 technology, maths and science students' hands-on experience of engineering with the sponsorship and help of local companies. For the past five months, professional engineers from the partner organisations have been working with the teams of students and their teachers on real engineering challenges'.

Neil Harding, head of technology at Pershore High School, said: "We were delighted to work with Allen Gears in Station Road, Pershore. Andrew Mansell and Luke Fowler, from the firm, were very keen to further develop greater links with our school and to communicate their passion for engineering."

Back in September, the students were presented with an engineering challenge set by Allen Gears, a company that specialises in manufacturing epicyclic gearboxes. They wanted the students to build an electronics-based system that would allow operators to test the accuracy of gearwheels. A voltage reading is taken informing the test bay that the probe is set correctly. Mr Harding said: "It was a very challenging time for them but they coped with everything amazingly well and learnt a great deal. I firmly believe that the experience has excited and enthused them, which of course, was one of the main objectives behind the scheme.

"I would like to take this opportunity to recognise the superb work from our students and congratulate them on the first class outcomes that were created. Also, I would like to express my gratitude to Andy and Luke who were wonderful engineering mentors to the group and were an inspiration throughout the project.

"I very much look forward to presenting the opportunity to our students again next year when we'll set another engineering challenge."