Engineering Society

Designed to enhance their learning in physics, maths and engineering lessons, whilst also stretching the pupils beyond the confines of examination syllabuses, the range of activities on offer includes:

• External Competitions: Lower Eighth teams enter the Schools’ Aerospace Challenge each year, presenting design ideas to the RAF each year; teams from St Paul’s have twice been placed as runners-up and winners in the last five years. The Weizmann Safe-cracking Challenge is also a popular choice with Eighth Form students. Contestants have to design a safe that can only be cracked by solving a physics riddle.
• CanSAT: Students entering the European Space Agency CanSAT competition launch research probes into the atmosphere and have achieved unparalleled success winning both the UK (three times) and European finals (twice) in the last five years, most recently in 2015. Their wins position them as the leading school in the history of the event. Lower school teams enter the UK BalloonSat competition.
• Formula 24+: Racing teams enter Greenpower Formula 24+ and Formula 24 racing competitions, in which teams  design, build and race their cars against teams from other schools and universities. Read more about Team Firefly here.
• Courses & Scholarships: St Paul’s students have enjoyed regular success applying for Arkwright Scholarships to support engineering interests in the Eighth Form; on average, four to six students receive a scholarship each year. Similarly, many Lower Eighth students attend Headstart Courses at leading UK universities to gain insight into reading engineering after St Paul’s.
• Internal Competitions: Lower school students compete for their ‘Club’ in a series of internal competitions, attempting to demonstrate their engineering prowess. Other smaller competitions are extremely popular (e.g. the Christmas Chocolate Challenge!) and are often organised by the students themselves. Each year over 150 students compete in internal competitions of varying difficulties.