London: Ninety primary school children from Wandsworth attend annual science festival event organised by National Grid and educational charity City Year

• Attractions include ‘whizz bang’ workshops and ‘chemistry conundrums’
• Organisers hope event will inspire love of science among children and inspire the engineers of tomorrow

London, UK, 18-3-2014 — /EuropaWire/ — Youngsters got a fun taste of the appliance of science, at an annual science festival recently. It’s hoped the fun day will inspire today’s children to think about possible engineering careers for tomorrow.

Ninety primary school children from across Wandsworth, south London, attended the event which was held at the Open Door Community Centre in Wandsworth.

The young attendees enjoyed a range of fun packed interactive workshops and experiments.

Education provider Mad Science assisted at the event which was organised as part of the School Power programme, a unique collaboration between National Grid and educational charity City Year UK – a youth and education charity that recruits 18-25 year olds to volunteer as mentors in primary and secondary schools.

Matthew Addison, School Power Leader at City Year UK, said: “The National Grid Science Festival, along with the wider School Power programme, offers primary school pupils a lively and memorable learning experience. We’re delighted to be partnering with National Grid to inspire children’s passion for science from such an early age.”

David Luetchford, National Grid Head of Cable Tunnels said: “It’s National Grid’s job to connect people to the energy they use.

“We also like to personally connect with the people we connect and initiatives like School Power delivered with our City Year partners are an excellent way to do this and also help inspire the next generation to contribute to society and enrich lives.”

National Grid is currently building the London Power Tunnels, a £1billion, 32km underground electricity superhighway, which will help keep Londoners connected to the electricity supplies which help the capital thrive as a global hub for business and tourism.

Mr Luetchford added: “By reaching out with City Year to the communities where we work we’re hopefully building good relationships and inspiring the next generation to think about a career in engineering.

“It’s inspiring to think that some of the young kids who came along to the festival may one day be picking up the baton from us and helping to connect the Londoners of the future to their energy supplies.”

Contact for media information only:

Antony Quarrell
National Grid Media Relations
07810 853075
antony.quarrell@nationalgrid.com

Out of hours duty press officer:

+44 (0) 1926 653000

Photos:

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www.nationalgrid.com

Notes to Editors:

City Year and its partnership with National Grid

City Year was first established in Boston, Massachusetts in 1988 and operates in 25 sites across America, as well as Johannesburg, South Africa and London and Birmingham, Great Britain.

City Year UK’s mission is to galvanise the talent, energy and idealism of young role models to help vulnerable children succeed in school.  It recruits 18-25 year olds to volunteer for a year as mentors and tutors across London and Birmingham.

Known as corps members, these young people serve in schools, full-time, Monday-Thursday.  They run breakfast clubs and extra-curricular activities, as well as deliver one-to-one or small group support for children that need most help.

In 2010 National Grid formed a partnership with City Year and has trained all the City Year London Corps members to deliver its School Power programme to help inspire and motivate children to learn all about science and technology.

It has also sponsored a City Year UK team at Whitmore Primary School, Hackney, since City Year UK’s first operational year in 2010.

City Year UK corps members receive one day a week dedicated leadership development, part of which is a mentoring relationship with their corporate sponsor.

Last year, City Year UK corps members committed over 155,000 hours of school-based voluntary service in London, reaching 6,000 children and in September 2013, City Year UK expanded to Birmingham.

www.cityyear.org.uk 

School Power

School Power is a unique programme offering free extra-curricular science workshops to primary schools. A unique collaboration between National Grid and City Year, The School Power programme enables City Year volunteers, trained by National Grid, to deliver workshops that raise awareness of the importance of science, technology and engineering within everyday life. The programme serves to assist teachers with the KS2 science curriculum, and covers themes including energy, forces and materials.

As part of School Power, City Year volunteers also facilitate visits to National Grid’s Energy Education Centre in Willesden to see the £1billion London Power Tunnels project that National Grid is building and to take part in fun experiments at the centre.

For more information about the Energy Education Centre, see http://www.londonpowertunnels.co.uk/eec.asp

London Power Tunnels

National Grid’s flagship project is building a subterrainian 32km electricity superhighway to help keep Londoners connected to the energy they use.

For more information go to www.londonpowertunnels.co.uk

National Grid

National Grid is one of the largest investor-owned energy companies in the world.  We own and manage the grids that connect people to the energy they need, from whatever the source.  In Britain and the north-eastern states of the US we run systems that deliver gas and electricity to millions of people, businesses and communities.

In Britain, we run the gas and electricity systems that our society is built on, delivering gas and electricity across the country.  In the North Eastern US, we connect more than seven million gas and electric customers to vital energy sources, essential for our modern lifestyles.

National Grid in the UK:

• We own the high-voltage electricity transmission network in England and Wales, operating it across Great Britain
• We own and operates the high pressure gas transmission system in Britain
• Our gas distribution business delivers gas to 11 million homes and businesses
• We also own a number of related businesses including LNG importation, land remediation and metering
• National Grid manages the National Gas Emergency Service free phone line on behalf of the industry – 0800 111 999 (all calls are recorded and may be monitored).
• Our portfolio of other businesses is mainly concerned with infrastructure provision and related services where we can exploit our core skills and assets to create value. These businesses operate in areas such as Metering, Grain LNG Import, Interconnectors and Property. National Grid Carbon Ltd is a wholly owned subsidiary of National Grid and it undertakes Carbon Capture Storage related activities on behalf of National Grid.

National Grid in the US:

• National Grid delivers electricity to approximately 3.3 million customers in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York and Rhode Island
• We manage the electricity network on Long Island under an agreement with the Long Island Power Authority (LIPA), and owns over 4,000 megawatts of contracted electricity generation, providing power to over one million LIPA customers

We are the largest distributor of natural gas in north-eastern U.S., serving approximately 3.4 million customers in New York, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Rhode Island.