Pupils fly high at inspiring day at National Air Traffic Services

Fifteen students from Ferndown Upper School’s year 10 (ages 14/15) accompanied by their Deputy Vice Principal Nigel Harris and JETLO Kaye arrived at the NATS (National Air Traffic Services) Corporate and Technical Centre (CTC) College of Air Traffic Control on 27th April, all looking forward to an exciting day ahead.

The group were welcomed and given a briefing about Air Traffic Control by instructor Steve Blanchard. The young people were then taken into the SPACE facility, the department where research and development takes place. There was a giant computer screen mounted on the wall where everyone got a chance to land aircraft by touching the
screen. The favourite activity was the Oculus rift goggles which showed virtual reality flying.

After lunch, the group were introduced to the impressive 3D aerodrome simulator. Surround screens give the impression of being on a real airport, controlling aircraft. The young people were given the opportunity to wear a headset and give instructions to aircraft, clearing them to land and take-off – all very exciting. Speaking after the visit, Mollyanne, 15, said she will listen more carefully to what is said and Leonie, also 15, said she has a much better understanding of how important team work is.

Nigel Harris went on to say “The students had a great day and your work to set that up is much appreciated. As you may have picked up from working with them, some have real issues with their self-confidence and sense of self-worth. As a result, some of them have very little ambition or aspiration and don’t really see the value of school work and qualifications. A number of them also come from very deprived backgrounds and do not have the sort of role models or contacts that would expose them to working environments other than the very mundane. The opportunity to visit such a high quality working environment as NATS and to hear from staff there that a career with an organization like NATS with a huge range of roles was not beyond their capabilities was a fantastic message. They were able to see how some of the work they do in school is directly relevant to the world of work but that also the ‘soft’ skills such as teamwork, being a confident speaker, courtesy etc. can be just as important as academic qualifications. Working with the Jon Egging Trust gives our students opportunities that they would not otherwise get and will be very much to their benefit and will help motivate them.”

Robbie Boyd of NATS said  “I couldn’t be happier about how the day went and I’m sure the students got a lot out of it. I think the SPACE activities worked really well as they tied in nicely with what they had learned during their team-building day and allowed us to show a different aspect of NATS to them. In conclusion it was a pleasure to host Ferndown Upper School and I’m very pleased that I had the opportunity to organise this. Hopefully this can be the start of more collaboration between the Jon Egging Trust and NATS. I think there’s a lot of benefit to young people seeing a company like this from the inside and understanding how the skills they are learning now will be important throughout life.”