Plymouth Navy Days Competition

The main objective of this competition was to bring people into Navy Days 2006. But the Navy Days team also wanted to raise interest in the Royal Navy, naval architecture, and engineering.

It was a three-tiered competition:

• primary school children were asked to design a vessel for use by the Royal Navy. The design had to demonstrate what the children thought was the most important role of the Royal Navy. The artwork on A3 paper was a painting or drawing of the ship showing the important parts.

• at the secondary school level teams of two or three had to design a vessel to allow the RN to meet its strategic goals. They had to describe why they had designed the vessel and what was important about it, including:

o how big it is

o what kind of aircraft and weapons it will carry

o how many sailors it will need

o how many Royal Marines it can carry

o what kind of engines it will have

o how it will take on fuel and food at sea etc.

• further education level entrants were asked to design a vessel for the future to a fictitious budget of £200 million. They gave them a fictitious costing sheet of the engineering decisions that make up the construction of a vessel. Points were awarded for innovation and ability to stay under price.

With the assistance of the Local Education Authority they wrote to schools across the region. The letter explained what the competition was about and included a helpful CD and guidance on websites to get more information from.

The CD contained video footage, information and artwork about both the competition and the Royal Navy and the types of work it does. It demonstrated how the Royal Navy operates all around the world in a variety of different ways. There were pictures of Royal Naval vessels (ships, submarines, amphibious, etc) in service and being manufactured at the moment.

Entries were on display during Navy Days, and in the souvenir programme, with winning entries on show in the Future Navy Marquee at the event. RINA selected the winners who received tickets to Navy Days and maritime books. The First Sea Lord and the Chairman of RINA presented a certificate to the children during the event.

The competition attracted entries from several schools across the region. It was a sufficient success for the Navy to consider rolling a similar competition out nationally.

They believe it succeeded because:

• they had clearly articulated what they were trying to do

• the LEA gave useful advice and active support which legitimised the offer to schools

• the quantity and quality of the background information made it a complete and valid creative educational package making participation fun and informative

• asking for contributions to the design of future warships made the children feel involved

• the timing (April/May/early Jun) fitted in well with work loads for the primary schools, but less well for the senior students

• the partnership with RINA brought technical information and experience of similar competitions to the event.

Back to case studies list