YEAR nine pupils at Corsham School had a face-to-face chat with members of local industry about the importance of science and maths in business.

Five companies attended the event on Friday (Jan 8), including Dyson, Siemens, Vectura, Bath University and Bath ASU who gave students a brief chat and set maths and science-based activities for them to solve.

Assistant head teacher Marcus Chapman said: “It all went really well. We had the whole of year nine doing the events. We split the year into two groups.

“The first group went in between 8.40-11am and the second group between 11am and 1pm.

“The kids seemed to really enjoy it. They were doing a whole range of activities with the aim being to inspire them to be interested in science, technology, engineering and maths or STEM.

“We chose to do it with the year nines as they are just about to choose their options and we thought we would show them how what they are learning links with industry. That was the point. If you get people coming in from industry the kids can see how the things work in the real world. It is the first time that we have done this with year nine. One of the issues that we are aware of is that science and engineering claim to be areas where kids do not go into, particularly with girls not choosing subjects like engineering and physics, and research shows that we are short in those areas.”