Community News

The AWE Charity Fund has donated £5000 to charity Home-Start. The donation is in support of the Isolated Families Project which aims to reduce the impact that isolation can have on families with young children in West Berkshire. According to the charity, parents with poor mental health report finding parenting difficult and often struggle with […]

AWE Charity Fund has made a donation to support the Woodland’s Trust Pledge to Plant a million trees for The Big Climate Fightback campaign. As part of AWE’s commitment to be a responsible business we have donated over 400 tree saplings to our staff and local community in exchange for a small donation to our […]

As part of our activities to support national  Road Safety Week we have been helping our local schools spread the message by supporting them in their own campaigns to raise awareness with pupils in their schools. The theme for this year’s campaign is “Step up for Safe Streets” and we donated some junior road safety […]

The Autumn edition of ‘Connect’ – the newsletter for our neighbours, is out now. Read all about how we’re recruiting for our next intake of graduates, as well as how successful the 2019 Primary Science Challenge was this year. Read ‘Connect’- November 2019

Year nine pupils from eight different schools competed to win the AWE Schools Engineering Challenge last week.  To win, the pupils were tested by AWE graduates on their engineering prowess via a number of challenges. The pupils had to create a hydroelectric generator, by designing and making a turbine, its housing unit, and the magnetic […]

Queen Mary’s College (QMC) is celebrating a new-look Primary Science Centre thanks to an exciting collaboration with AWE. The revamped centre was opened on Wednesday 25 September by TV personality and maths whiz, Johnny Ball, who opened the original facility 20 years ago. Johnny is a passionate advocate of STEM* education for young people and […]

AWE had a stand at Reading Pride for the first time this year and AWE’s team of volunteers are already looking forward to the next one! The colourful AWE stand was very busy, attracting visitors from the start of the event and the interactive science area was particularly popular with families. The volunteer team had […]

Brookfields Special School in Tilehurst have been fundraising to buy an adaptive tricycle for pupils with mobility problems and visual impairment.  The tricycle allows pupils in wheelchairs or with visual impairment to take part in cycling activities which both help to improve their mobility and to enjoy an activity which is normally inaccessible to them. […]

Graduates from AWE recently encouraged pupils from Berkshire and Hampshire to enter this year’s AWE Primary Science Challenge. The annual challenge is run in partnership with the educational charities’ Educational Business Partnership West Berkshire (EBPWB) and the Basingstoke Consortium. AWE’s Dr Claire Leppard – project sponsor said “I have been involved in the graduate project […]

A team of AWE graduates worked with pupils from nine* local schools in the 2019 Royal Institution Engineering Masterclass series. Thirty teens (aged 13-14) took up the six-week challenge, which was hosted at The Hurst Community College, Baughurst. Students from different schools were placed in five teams, competing against each other for the first five […]

TeenTech Hampshire was a smash hit with the 300 Hampshire students who attended and AWE’s teams of engineers and scientists had a STEMtastic time too! AWE has been involved with TeenTech since 2011.  Philippa Kent, AWE’s community engagement manager, explained why: “TeenTech is a great opportunity for us to work with key community partners. By […]

The Lerigo Charity XI, an entire cricket team with the surname Lerigo, played their hearts out to raise money for St Michael’s Hospice, at Ramsdell Cricket Club’s Cricket World Cup Family Day and Charity Fund-Raiser. In addition to the cricket, there were plenty of stalls, a raffle and a quiz in the evening plus, of […]

AWE’s specialist drone team had an unusual assignment this week – inspecting the roof at St. Mary’s Church in Tadley! Their mission was to use the drone to provide detailed aerial imagery and videography of St Mary’s, enabling visual confirmation that lightning protection on the bell tower and the roof itself, are in good condition […]

MOD police officers from AWE were accompanied by police Dogs- Spaniel Speedy and German Shepherd Kajo when they visited North Waltham Primary school to give a demonstration and talk about forensic science and drugs awareness. The dogs carried out several demonstrations. The Spaniel, Speedy (a drug detection dog) carried out a playground search and Kajo, […]

AWE is working in partnership with Queen Mary’s College and Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council to deliver a series of fun science workshops on the theme Journey to Space for primary children across Basingstoke and North Hampshire. AWE’s Community Engagement Manager, Philippa Kent, who runs the company’s award-winning schools programme, said: ‘British Science week is […]

Newbury MP Richard Benyon chatted to AWE graduates and apprentices on 7th November during a visit to AWE and a tour of the Orion laser facility. Mr Benyon also heard about AWE’s unique work in support of the UK’s nuclear deterrent as well as the company’s community work in local schools to promote STEM as […]

AWE is proud to be part of the Thames Valley’s newly-launched Young Apprentice Ambassador Network (YAAN), with two of its apprentices already signed up. The Thames Valley YAAN is part of a national initiative to develop a community of inspiring, driven apprentices and former apprentices. It will work closely with four other areas in the […]

More than 20 physics undergraduates from 14 universities across the UK attended AWE’s Physics Undergraduate Conference recently (8 October) to explore the exciting world of physics. The attendees also had the opportunity to visit AWE’s world-leading Orion laser facility at Aldermaston – to understand how high energy density physics supports the UK’s nuclear deterrent. The […]

The Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR) has published its Annual Report 17/18 today. Below is the AWE response to this report –   The AWE sites at Aldermaston and Burghfield remain in ‘enhanced regulatory attention,’ largely due to the fact that we are operating in a number of ageing facilities. Some of these facilities were built […]

A team of AWE graduate engineers intrigued young visitors to this year’s Hampshire TeenTech event with four exhibits and a Laser Maze challenge. TeenTech aims to encourage young people to consider science, technology and engineering subjects. Its events feature leading scientists, engineers and technologists, who showcase leading edge technology in exciting demonstrations and interactive displays […]