Rampion and Open Doors 2019

Open Doors is an initiative set up by East Sussex County Council to enable young people to experience the world of work by visiting local businesses.

Over 100 students visited across the 3 months, from New Horizons in Hastings, Chailey School, St Leonards Academy, Kings Academy Ringmer, Ratton School and Robertsbridge Academy.

Students had a tour of the site, played Top Trumps, tried their hand at designing their own wind farm, learnt about rescue techniques and even built their own wind turbine. A few lucky classes also had the opportunity to go aboard one of our Crew Transfer Vessels (CTVs) and have a tour from the crew. This sadly wasn’t possible for all our visiting groups as the CTVs are usually busy taking our wind turbine technicians out to the field, but we had a lucky break with the weather that day!

Some of the feedback from schools included:

Thanks for such an amazing trip.  The students really engaged with it and were excited to tell their peers how cool the trip was.  Several of the students have been asking about Triple Science, so have started to think about Scientific careers, and see the merit of working towards this.  It was such an engaging session allowing them to think about the planning and design stages.  This really augments the skills that they are developing at GCSE, so is hugely beneficial for the students.  Thanks again for such a worthwhile and fascinating opportunity.

Year 8 teacher, Ratton School

Thank you very much for letting us have a look around your facility. We had an amazing time and we now all know a lot more than we used to about wind farms. Our favourite part was the boat trip because it was really cool to have a look at all the different parts of a boat closer up.

Year 9, Chailey School

Next year we hope to invite schools to our brand-new visitor centre in Brighton, to find out even more about Rampion and the offshore wind industry.

Photo credit: Peter Cripps