G Boyes garage in Kilham run school competition partnership with Rix Petroleum

CHILDREN at an East Yorkshire primary school have taken part in a competition to design a fuel tanker as part of a learning module called ‘on the move’.

The competition was run by G Boyes garage in Kilham in partnership with  Rix Petroleum, after youngsters from Kilham C of E Primary School visited the garage on an educational trip.

Five-year-old pupil Sophie Shaw was announced the winner for her bright orange, purple and blue tanker design and the runners up were Freya Burton, also five, and Monique Mulroy, aged four.

All three received a Rix Petroleum knitted woollen hat and a box of chocolates for their work, which involved colouring in the template of a fuel tanker in any colours they chose.

Kilham Primary School teacher Lianne Morrison came up with the idea for the teaching module but said she gave the children the choice of exactly what to study.

When they decided they wanted to see how a garage operated she contacted Peter Boyes at G Boyes and arranged to take them on a visit.

To make the visit more interesting James Brook, marketing manager from Rix Petroleum, came up with the idea of a competition and put together the tanker templates which were distributed among the kids.

G Boyes and Rix Petroleum have a working relationship dating back 30 years and the Yorkshire company has just invested £6,000 in updating the Kilham garage’s pumps.

Lianne said: “I wanted to give the children a really interesting experience and they were very keen to visit the garage so Peter kindly agreed to show us round. To coincide with the visit we gave the kids the design competition to take part in and that added an extra dimension to the day.

“They really got a lot from the visit, it was very educational, and thoroughly enjoyed taking part in the competition.”

A total of 24 kids took part in the trip earlier this month, all between the ages of three and five.

Peter Boyes said it was fantastic to show the youngsters around although it had been a very hectic morning.

“We’ve never had so many people in the workshop,” he said.

“But it was lovely to have all the children here looking round and they all seemed very interested to learn about how things worked, from pumping the petrol to repairing cars.”

He added he had been very impressed with the children’s work and picking the winner had been a difficult job.