Gosport students are shown the importance of science and technology at STEM day

A STEM day organised by the Gosport and Fareham Multi-Academy Trust at Bay House School in Gosport saw hundreds of pupils find out more about how to apply the subjects they learn at school when they move into full-time careers.

Stalls from local institutions like BAE Systems, the Royal Navy and the Diving Museum showed the youngsters the importance of STEM subjects, all with the hope of getting more pupils to take up the subjects for their GCSEs.

Georgina Mulhall, head of the GFM and headteacher of Gomer Junior School, believes that encouraging students to study STEM subjects is crucial in a competitive jobs market.

She said: '˜Over the two STEM days we are holding. we are expecting to see around 3,000 students from Gosport and Fareham.

'˜We want students to have their eyes opened to the opportunities presented by STEM, and find out how their learning is relevant to their future careers.

'˜Gosport is an incredibly rich place for the STEM industry, so it's important that our young people feel inspired by the place they live.'

Pupils at the event had the chance to get in a flight simulator, try on historic diving helmets and even meet Titan '“ an eight-foot tall entertainment robot.

Clarice Still, Year 9 from Brune Park Community School, said: '˜Today has been really good '“ we've been able to see everything here.

'˜It's fun to experience things like this and find out more about STEM.

'˜I'm seriously thinking about doing something for my GCSEs '“ probably engineering, I just find it really interesting.'

Ryan Gates, also a Year 9 student at Brune Park, said: '˜The robots from the University of Portsmouth were really great.

'˜I think I'm going to do science and engineering in my GCSEs because it's something I'm interested in learning about.'

Rosina Sergeant, a maths teacher at Bay House School, says that the students have been engaging well with the event.

She said: '˜It's really good to have businesses from the STEM industry like BAE Systems coming in '“ it helps to inspire the children and shows them that anything is possible with a bit of drive and passion.

'˜They've all been really engaged with the event; they're all getting stuck in at the activity stations and finding out what happens at each place.

'˜By making it fun, they are more likely to be engaged with it and hopefully this will make them think even more carefully about which GCSEs they take on.'

Coordinating the Royal Navy's involvement in the event, Warrant Officer Second Class '˜Midge' Ure from HMS Sultan said: '˜Seeing this STEM Centre launch is a massive honour and the result of a lot of hard work by a lot of people.

'˜I've been involved in STEM in this area for three years now and the Royal Navy places a huge emphasis on STEM outreach as we look to inspire the next set of engineers for the future in this, the Year of Engineering.'