.png){kind=logo}
Mr Jackson invited 16th Regt Royal Artillery to visit us on Thursday 24th May, for the purpose of supporting our Year 8 STEM-based project about ‘The Blitz’. Many people are unaware of the damage our city suffered in World War 2, so this Project helps highlight this, linking in all of our subject areas. Every Year 8 student studied an aspect of The Blitz in their timetabled lessons across the week, so giving our students a thorough appreciation of the events and consequences of those terrible times
To enhance the Project, we were extremely fortunate for some of the men from 16 Regiment of the Royal Artillery, based in Thorney Island, to come in for the day and display a Rapier ground-to-air air defence missile system for us! Not only was it displayed, but we experienced how it can be remotely controlled and activated, with the Launcher spinning around, loaded with eight actual missiles! Also quite astounding was the fact that the equipment we had being presented to us was worth over £7,000,000!
The men arrived at 7.15 a.m. to set up at the north side of school – getting their massive lorry through our gate was quite a challenge but their expert driving skills ensured everything was parked safely. The display consisted of a tent with the ‘control system’ set up, this connected to the missile launcher. Students could also remotely control the launcher from the stand-alone system. The detection equipment on top of the launcher can also detect objects using infra-red imaging, which many students found quite fascinating.
After experiencing the control centre, students then received a presentation about what personal equipment a soldier could carry whilst either on a day patrol, or a longer duration patrol. Students were able to try on a ‘day pack’, plus a less than half-empty rucsac (still 25kg!), and a helmet – when fully laden, and combined with a rifle and ammunition, these would mass over 100kg! And more if it was raining!
Our students learnt about how the importance of ‘doing your best’ will stand them in good stead for their future careers, regardless of what career they choose. Our guests challenged students to come up with a career that is NOT possible to follow in the British Army – they could not! Many students left the display considering an army-based career, especially where all training fees are paid for, plus the soldiers get paid for doing the training! Exemplar careers included nurses and doctors – to train to be such as a civilian costs many tens of thousands – in the Army, you are paid to do such with no fees!
Our guests also ran Q+A sessions with many of our Year 11 students, some of whom are already embarking on their own Army-based career pathways. Our Little Sunbeams were amazed at the size of the wheels on the lorry – over and a quarter times taller than they were!
The range of questions asked by our students, and the variety of answers received from our guests really helped out students not only try and appreciate and understand the horror of The Blitz that Portsmouth suffered in World War 2, but also how STEM plays a vital role in our current military- and civilian-based lives.
We are extremely grateful to our guests from 16 Regiment Royal Artillery for their time and efforts in displaying their equipment at our school.
