ACADEMY students have swapped their text books for toolkits after they were chosen to take part in a national engineering challenge.

As part of the Institution of Engineering and Technology’s (IET) Faraday Challenge Day, Year 8 Nunthorpe Academy students competed in engineering-related events for the chance to win £1,000 for their school.

In total, 47 schools across the UK were chosen to host the event, with the top three teams receiving an all-expenses paid trip to next year’s national final to compete for the cash prize.

Lee Brown, academy principal, said: “The Faraday Challenge Day was a fantastic event, which our students thoroughly enjoyed. It provided a great, practical example of engineering in action and our Year 8 students worked extremely hard in a challenging environment.

“Hopefully we will make it through to the next stage and I would like to thank the IET staff and volunteers who visited the school and assisted with the challenge.”

The aim of the event was to encourage more young people to study and consider careers in science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) by using creativity, innovation and problem-solving skills.