Volunteers from Siemens Mobility’s Goole Rail Village have completed a playground makeover at Kingsway Primary School in Goole, creating a new outdoor learning and play space designed to inspire curiosity and support pupil wellbeing.
The project focused on the Year 1 playground at the East Yorkshire school, which has more than 400 pupils. Siemens Mobility donated over £2,000 towards raw materials, while a team of 10 employees carried out building and joinery work over the course of a week during the school holidays.
The redesigned space includes a construction zone, a gardening area complete with a wormery and insect hotel, an outdoor library and a small theatre to support teaching and performance. Additional features such as a mud kitchen, sandpit train, waterfall, weather vane, rain gauge and thermometer have also been installed to encourage hands-on learning.
Natalie Thornton, Operations Support Manager at Siemens Mobility, said:
“The project aims to encourage children at a very young age to be excited by STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths) subjects, simply through having fun.
The areas, from the wormery to the water play, ignite interest in sustainability, science, and engineering concepts, while promoting safety and creativity.”
The initiative reinforces Siemens Mobility’s long-term commitment to the Goole community and to engaging young people with science, technology, engineering and maths. It sits alongside the company’s wider investment in the town through its Goole Rail Village, a state-of-the-art facility representing an investment of up to £240 million.
The Goole Rail Village is currently assembling new Tube trains for Transport for London’s Piccadilly line and is also intended to assemble battery bi-mode trains for the wider UK rail network.
Over the past five years, Siemens Mobility has worked with almost 30 schools and engaged more than 2,000 primary school pupils and 80 teachers through its annual education programme. Delivered in partnership with national charity Primary Engineer, the programme includes workshops led by Siemens Mobility’s volunteer STEM Ambassadors.
