PUPILS in Year 6 at Okehampton Primary School have been working on a 'shelter' project this term, and as part of the project received a visit from top engineering firm Buro Happold.

As part of the school's efforts to give children real life experiences, pupils were asked to write a news article on the visit.

The articles were of an excellent standard —below is one report, written by Chloe Brooking:

YEAR 6 children at Okehampton Primary School were recently treated to an exciting visit from three engineers who are building the London Olympic Stadium.

The stadium builders Buro Happold took time out of their gruelling schedule to pass on their expertise to the next generation.

Year six teacher Alison Armstrong explained that she was thrilled and delighted when she got a reply to her request that she sent 6 months ago to Buro Happold, who made time to travel from Bath to Okehampton.

Buro Happold use a combination of maths, art and science to create outstanding projects, including the Emirates Football stadium.

Year 6 school pupils were treated to a phenomenal presentation showing some of Buro Hapold's most breathtaking projects, which left them truly spellbound.

For half an hour, stunned silence and wide-eyed wonder, punctuated with gasps of amazement, were the main expressions on the children's faces, as images of the 02 arena, 2012 Olympic Stadium and even shaped cities filled the room.

There followed a session in which the engineers taught the pupils all about the structural techniques involved in engineering.

The children, still buzzing from the slideshow, were given a whole 2 hours of specialist coaching by the engineers, in which they were also set a design challenge.

Each determined to win, the children participated excitedly, and models were constructed with great enthusiasm.

Grace, the oldest in the team, said: 'I really enjoyed making model structures with art straws, even though it was hard at times.'

Before the end of the session the engineers became judges and chose the winning model, although it wasn't an easy decision to make.

One of the engineers said: 'It was great to see so much enthusiasm toward our projects.'

Unfortunately the day was over all too quickly for both engineers and children, but it will live on forever in their minds, and the skills learnt will be used to make a living memory in the shape of a shelter in the year 5 and 6 playground.