GIFTED and talented pupils from three primary schools across the town had the chance to show off their skills yesterday.

Pupils from Lainesmead, Oaktree and Drove primary schools took part in an event at Churchfields Academy that saw them driving a battery-powered kit car that they had helped to build.

The event was part of a programme, called Primary Electronics, which recognises pupils who are gifted and talented in maths and science.

Dan Fowler, science teacher at Churchfields Academy who organised the project, said: “For the past three years groups of pupils form Lainesmead, Oaktree and Drove primaries, identified as being gifted and talented in maths and science, have been coming to Churchfields to take part in an exciting engineering project.

“Each year the project is launched at a special science, technology, engineering and maths event at the University of Bath where pupils undertake a series of problem solving and teambuilding exercises, have a taste of university life for a day and a tour of specialist engineering department.”

The pupils visited Churchfields Academy every Wednesday afternoon after the launch event.

Under supervision, they built a battery-powered kit car capable of being driven and raced. The car is made from more than 200 parts.

Mr Fowler said: “The building process relies on interpreting a series of pictorial instructions, excellent teamwork, communication and problem solving.

“As in real world engineering and construction, the teams were faced with various problems during the build and had to use a range of skills to analyse and identify the problem, decide on how the problem could best be rectified and then work together on their solution.”

Yesterday, the pupils took part in time trials around the 400m running track on Churchfields Academy’s playing field in a bid to be crowned the champion.