BRIGHT sparks across the Millom area have been impressing business bosses with their creativity and science skills.

Primary schools have been going head to head in a gruelling engineering competition that tested the mettle of some of west Cumbria's brightest young minds.

The Little Big Bang event is an annual competition that challenges junior school children to work together to create an engineering masterpiece.

This year pupils worked together with Millom School and Sellafield ambassadors over a 10 week period to build a rocket car.

Bob Steele, STEM ambassador and commercial support officer for Sellafield, was astonished by the efforts of the group and congratulated the students on their ingenuity.

He said: "The dedication and drive from Millom School STEM team is truly inspirational. But the real win has been to see so many children getting involved, from the way they picked or nominated team captains to some amazing leadership skills.

“The staff in all the junior schools have been fantastic. "Each school employed slightly different approaches to tackle the project, but they all worked beautifully.”

Over the course of 10 weeks, schools have been working hard to create their entries before demonstrating them in front of a team of independent judges in a showstopping final yesterday.

Each school received support from Sellafield or Low Level Waste Repository ambassadors who worked with pupils along the course of the project.

Ambassadors liaised with local businesses such as Tesco, Travis Perkins and Milligan's Ford garage to encourage them to provide raw materials or contribute a small donation towards the project.

Once the materials were collected, Millom School prepared a box of materials for each school, who began working in groups of six to develop their model.

Black Combe Junior School was announced the winner and were amazed to discover that their name will be emblazoned on to the tail fin of the supersonic Bloodhound car which is designed to break the land speed record.

Other schools involved were Waberthwaite CofE Primary School, Captain Shaw's CofE Primary School, St James Catholic Primary School, Broughton in Furness Primary School, Haverigg Primary School and Thwaites School near Millom.

Millom School's engineering mentor George Burch was proud to be part of the day's events.

He said: "It was absolutely brilliant. I was amazed at the work that the kids had done for their age - in particular the babies who were just in year two.

"It was just unbelievable the input they had. Their engineering expertise really came to light today and these kids can really be proud of what they've achieved."