SOME of the country's youngest engineers at St Mark's Junior School in Shirley, Southampton, have celebrated the completion of a project to provide fellow pupils with a much-needed covered walkway and performance space.

The project was taken on by members of the school's Young Engineers' Club for seven to 11-year-olds who were assisted by a number of professionals including retired building contracts manager Jim Finch from Eastleigh-based company Rok.

Headteacher Anne Steele Arnett said: "The brief for the club was to design a shelter that would solve three problems for the school - namely that there was no protection when it rained, no shade when it was sunny and nowhere outside to act as a platform for the pupils to show off their talents as performers."

The Courtyard was 'Christened' with an opening ceremony during which former pupil Kate Roscoe sang and played the guitar and Year Five children sang their own composition, The Environment Song.

Members of the Rok building team who had worked on the construction were invited to a celebration tea party and entertained by a jazz band from the Mountbattan School in Romsey and the Steel Band from the Cresses School in Eastleigh.