College competition winners impress judges with exceptional interpretations

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Creativity and innovation took centre stage as the winners of West Suffolk College’s Buildtastic Primary School competitions have been announced.

The Buildtastic competitions, launched back in October as part of the popular event celebrating National Construction Week, saw hundreds of Primary School pupils submit their entries.

With collaboration at its heart, the event worked in partnership with primary and secondary schools, post-16 educational providers and employers to raise the profile of the construction industry with young people across the region and beyond.

The college launched four different competitions: Building a Beautiful Bug Hotel, Building a Hedgehog House, Building a Model House from Food and Building a Lego Brick Bridge.

Building a Beautiful Bug Hotel asked the children to build a beautiful bug hotel using any recycled materials they could find. The judges were looking for the most well thought out bug hotel that appeals to humans as well as bugs.

The Key Stage 1 category saw joint winners with the Year 1 and 2 class at Barnby & North Cove Primary School in Beccles and Thomas Mansfield of Early Years at St Edmunds Roman Catholic Primary School, Bury St Edmunds being awarded first place.

The Key Stage 2 category for Building a Beautiful Bug Hotel saw the Chestnut Class at Barnby & North Cove Primary School in Beccles take first place.

Building a Hedgehog House invited the pupils to build a hedgehog house using any recycled materials they liked. The judges were looking for the most well thought out house that appeals to humans and of course hedgehogs!

The Key Stage 1 category saw Year 2 pupil Robert Smith of Tollgate Primary School, Bury St Edmunds take first place. Robert was supported by his Grandad and his entry was so successful he already has a resident hedgehog!

The Key Stage 2 category was won by Year 5 & 6 class at Glebeland Community Primary School.

Building a Model House from Food asked the children to build the tallest model house they possibly could, using nothing but food! The judges awarded points for not just the height and how many different food materials incorporated, but the most creative design.

Year 5 pupil Annabel Mansfield of St Edmunds Roman Catholic Primary School, Bury St Edmunds was crowned the winner.

The final competition, Building a Lego Brick Bridge, asked the children to build a bridge with a very long span and a maximum of four upright supports using lego bricks. The judges were blown away by the entries.

The Key Stage 1 category saw Year 1 pupil Ena Monteiro of St Edmunds Roman Catholic Primary School awarded first place.

The Key Stage 2 category saw joint winners with Year 4 pupil Harriet Hickey of All Saints CEVC Primary School, Lawshall and Year 3 pupil Sidney Astle who was supported by young sister Lydia, of St Edmunds Roman Catholic Primary School, Bury St Edmunds taking first prize.

Vic Fiebelkorn, Primary Science Coordinator at West Suffolk College said: “Buildtastic was an absolute success and for me it was an absolute pleasure to build links between primary education and such an enthusiastic, dynamic industry – construction rocks! At West Suffolk College we are committed to ensuring every child has access to a wide range of enrichment activities, boosting subject enthusiasm and attainment, and to creating a highly capable and prepared future workforce to support our local economy – this ethos is central to what we call our ‘Escalator Model’ and Buildtastic hit that nail right on the head.”

The winners have all won a day of construction activities for their class (up to 30 children) at our Built Environment Campus in Bury St Edmunds. This will include a picnic-style lunch and a £100 contribution towards transport costs. The activity days will be held in late June to early July 2021.