‘Super Teacher’ Jamie Costello nabs top Engineering Prize

engineering careers  ‘Super Teacher’ Jamie Costello nabs top Engineering Prize

Sutton Grammar School Physics teacher Jamie Costello has nabbed a share of a £5k Engineering prize for his school after being awarded the prestigious ERAF’s David Clark Prize this Wednesday.

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The ERA Foundation held its 15th annual lunch on May 9th in London. The Engineering organisation awards a number of prizes each year, including the David Clark Prize, which celebrates examples of teachers motivating young people to consider a career in engineering.

Through the Clark Prize, we recognise the important role those involved in education play in inspiring young people. The prize seeks to reward an exceptional teacher, technician or educational advisor who has gone the extra mile in motivating young people to consider engineering as a profession and career.The ERA Foundation

While Jamie has designed and built high altitude balloons, an ocean drifter, an offsite solar storm detector, and pioneered the regional Big Bang Fair for EngineeringUK in Sutton he is also known for the Vertigo project.

We are big fans of the Vertigo which combines some mind-bending maths with ARM’s mBed microprocessor to create a device that is capable of combining an accelerometer, gyroscope and GPS to tell you exactly where you have gone and how fast you were going. He hopes the tool might inspire the next generation of Engineers in the classroom.

Last year 25% of Jamie’s students went on to University to study engineering-related courses.


CEO of Rolls-Royce was the keynote speaker at the ERA Foundation lunch. Warren talked about the challenges facing complex manufacturing operations and how new digital technologies might revolutionise manufacturing fields like photonics, additives, and sensors to boost UK productivity.