Flying visit from the RAF for school careers event

Students at a Telford school had a flying visit from some very special guests at their latest careers event.

Hadley Learning Community welcomed representatives from RAF Shawbury who landed their Juno 135 helicopter on the school playing field.

Assistant head teacher Jill Lock said: “When the helicopter landed, there was rapturous applause from the primary students who had come out to welcome our guests, and everyone was extremely excited.

“We were delighted to welcome the team from RAF Shawbury. It was a great highlight of the careers event that we had organised for our year seven students with a focus on STEM subjects – science, technology, engineering and maths.”

Royal Navy pilot, Lieutenant Alex Robinson, and Flight Lieutenant Jonathon Jones from the RAF flew in from RAF Shawbury in the helicopter.

Lieutenant Robinson said: “A helicopter does everything that STEM can offer – it’s the perfect combination. At Shawbury we train the pilots of tomorrow and it was a great pleasure to show the students the technology that helps a helicopter fly.”

Students asked questions about the training the pilots had completed, their experiences in the military, and the various manoeuvres and postings they had experienced.

The youngsters also had the chance to get close to the helicopter to explore it for themselves.

Year seven student Alfie Griffiths said: “You don’t realise until you’re right in front of it how massive a helicopter is! It’s unbelievable to see such a technical piece of machinery move so smoothly.”

Student Ollie Hamer was fascinated by the experiences of the pilots who had explained some of their missions. He said: “It’s just like James Bond – spying on other countries!”

Sam Wynne and Lucy Phillips from the careers team at HLC said they couldn’t have been more pleased with the visit.

Sam said: “The RAF have supported us in the most amazing way at our careers event, bringing a real life experience to our students who thoroughly enjoyed being so close to such an impressive piece of engineering.”

Lucy said: “We’d like to thank the team at HLC and the local community for their support in allowing this incredible event to take place. 

“And special thanks must go to the pilots and crew at RAF Shawbury, without whom this once in a lifetime opportunity would not have been possible.”

Pic: Alfie Griffiths and Ollie Hamer with the RAF helicopter which landed on the Hadley Learning Community field