YOUNG scientists from Wotton-under-Edge met royalty when they scooped a top engineering award.

The Wotton Home Educators STEM Club won a nationalist specialist award at the Big Bang Fair in Birmingham last month.

The small technology club was awarded Best Home Educator Club of the year by leading organisation Young Engineers.

This prestigious award in the Young Engineer for Britain competition not only netted the group £250 but they also got the chance to meet the Duke of York, Prince Andrew.

The STEM club focuses on teaching Wotton children science, technology, engineering and maths skills not learnt in the classroom.

Wendy Lomas, who helps runs the club along with Caroline Alliston, author of the Technology and Physics for Fun books, said it was a huge achievement for the group.

“To our knowledge, we are the first group of home educators to win a club award and to showcase at the Big Bang Fair,” she said.

“We had to demonstrate three projects and the children had to talk about the club and its ethos and then give a presentation.

“Our STEM club ethos is largely about recycling, learning by doing, inspiring and supporting others and having fun.”

The children demonstrated both wiring in a model home, with a homemade fan, switches and circuits and a counter-weight trebuchet.

The Big Bang Fair is the largest celebration of science, technology, engineering and maths for young people in the UK.

To find out more see www.technologyforfun.co.uk