Perry Process – The next generation

Staff at Perry Process got the opportunity to relive their youth in June when the company played host to a class of Year 6 student from the local Aycliffe Village Primary school this month.

The children have been studying science in the classroom but the visit to Perry Process’s premises in Newton Aycliffe allowed them to see how the experiments they performed translated into real-world situations.

The visit was organised as part of the Children Challenging Industry (CCI) project which was started in 1996 and aims to create enthusiasm for learning science amongst primary school children by providing classroom-based training for the teaching of the National Curriculum for Science. This, and liaison with local science-based manufacturing companies, enables pupils to see how the science they learn at school is used in a 'real life' context.

It was a real ‘hands on’ day for the children who got to experiment with lots of dirty water in filters and centrifuges to see how the pieces of industrial equipment worked and how this related back to the experiments they had already done at school. Darren Bentham, MD of Perry Process, said “As a reseller of used processing equipment we have a wide range of items in storage at our warehouse facilities. Essentially these items do exactly the same job as the test tubes and filter papers the children had already been using, just on a bigger scale.”

On the level of enthusiasm the children showed on the visit, Darren said, “It seems to me they had a really good time with us and certainly found it beneficial to see how the things they learn at school are relevant to the real world. Hopefully, we have inspired some of them to study science further in the future and who knows, maybe one could come and work here in 10 years time.”

Joanne Rout of CCI said, “The opportunity for children to visit companies such as Perry is invaluable in encouraging children to take an interest in science and we are always grateful that such businesses take the time out of their busy schedules to accommodate us. However, as Perry have found out, it is often difficult to tell who has the most fun, the children or the staff!”