YOUNG would-be engineers from Leigh have been building their own bridges to the future.

And yesterday 16 of them took another giant step in their quest to win the Young Engineers of Great Britain competition.

As part of a Leigh Education Action Zone initiative, Salford University engineer Lex Thakur helped a class of 10 and 11-year-olds at Sacred Heart RC J&I School in an exciting design project which saw them construct seven bridges from their own imaginative specifications.

The school's science and design technology co-ordinator, Helen Ahmed, has prepared the 16 Year Six students for their biggest challenge to date.

They have been asked to build 'something on which they can travel over water'.

Helen has found that pupils are motivated by working with a 'real life' engineer.

"They are excited with what they have already achieved," she said.

Mr Thakur will judge their work, which could lead to regional and national finals in June.

The project is linked with the Education Action Zone's initiative of raising attainment through links with industry. And the former Water Board official will maintain links with the school, returning in the summer for a project in which students will check the intricate process of water travelling through the building in Widermere Road -- from taps to drains.

Children at the school took part in the EAZ's Technology Tree last Autumn when some 47 of them visited PPG Industries at Hindley Green, later giving company directors an illuminating presentation of what they had learned. YOUNG would-be engineers from Leigh have been building their own bridges to the future.

And yesterday 16 of them took another giant step in their quest to win the Young Engineers of Great Britain competition.

As part of a Leigh Education Action Zone initiative, Salford University engineer Lex Thakur helped a class of 10 and 11-year-olds at Sacred Heart RC J&I School in an exciting design project which saw them construct seven bridges from their own imaginative specifications. The school's science and design technology co-ordinator, Helen Ahmed, has prepared the 16 Year Six students for their biggest challenge to date.

They have been asked to build 'something on which they can travel over water'.

Helen has found that pupils are motivated by working with a 'real life' engineer.

"They are excited with what they have already achieved," she said.

Mr Thakur will judge their work, which could lead to regional and national finals in June. The project is linked with the Education Action Zone's initiative of raising attainment through links with industry.

And the former Water Board official will maintain links with the school, returning in the summer for a project in which students will check the intricate process of water travelling through the building in Widermere Road -- from taps to drains.