News International Women in Engineering Day 26.06.2020

We were delighted to have Hazel Selby, Senior Engineer at Max Fordham, and her colleagues Sara and Suzanne speaking remotely to aspiring engineers for International Women in Engineering Day.

It was a return to the school for Hazel who spoke last year about her work with Max Fordham on the redevelopment of the school’s Sports Centre with its focus on renewable energy sources. Hazel, Sara and Suzanne spoke about the wide range of careers in engineering and the different requirements to get a foot on the ladder. The girls were given insight into the day-to-day work of an engineer (lots of equations and drawings of electrical and heating systems) and the different roles – from architects to structural engineers – that come together to work on a project.

Like their Godolphin counterparts, Suzanne, Sara and Hazel all share an interest in sustainable energy which they explained was a key factor in their decision to work for Max Fordham who place a strong emphasis on environmental responsibility; their pledge to reduce waste, particularly energy, was a founding principle when the company started over 50 years ago. Sara encouraged girls at the outset of their engineering careers to do their research into a prospective company’s projects and the areas that they work in to check that this aligns with their own areas of interest. Suzanne also explained how mandatory work experience and research placements at university were invaluable in understanding what different industries there are for engineers and how a lot of the practical elements studied at university are applicable to a job in engineering. 

Meanwhile, although our annual Sixth Form trip to CERN was sadly cancelled due to coronavirus, the Physics department used International Women’s Day to arrange a Google Meet with Dr Virginia Azzolini, Particle Physics Researcher and Machine Learning Manager at CERN, who shared some of the exciting work and the amazing discoveries being made on a daily basis at the Geneva institute. Our Year 11 and Lower Sixth physicists were joined by students from partner schools Sacred Heart and Kensington Aldridge Academy, and the standard of questions posed to Dr Azzolini after the talk highlighted just how inspired the meeting had left all in attendance.