Senior House has welcomed three outside speakers who have visited as part of the children’s Thursday Enrichment Programme. Mr Nick Butler, a civil engineer working presently for the firm Tideway Tunnels; Mr Stuart Sadler, a master diver and Mr Rowland White, a historical writer. The series of speakers is aimed to provide talks on a diverse range of careers for some of the children at Senior House.
Nick Butler
Mr Butler’s current project is organising the construction of the sewage overflow system for the Thames. This is a massive tunnel, several kilometres long which when completed will prevent pollution of the river which happens under certain conditions at the moment. Mr Butler has previously worked on the construction of tunnels for HS1 into St Pancras Station. Mr Michael Andrews who organises the series of speakers commented, “As well as describing his various projects, illustrated with many photographs and video clips, Mr Butler explained how he became an engineer and why he loves his work so much. His presentation was lively and entertaining and was much enjoyed by the children, many of whom said they would consider a career in engineering one day.”
Stuart Sadler
Mr Sadler explained that he first dived while on holiday at the age of ten and loved it so much it became a hobby which later turned into a career. He brought with him wet suits, dry suits, aqua lungs, masks, flippers, (or fins as divers call them) and a selection of photographs to illustrate his talk and he let the children try on many items and described many experiences he has had diving all over the world including rescue missions he has been involved with. One of the highlights was the collection of underwater photographs of many sea creatures he has filmed. The children were especially impressed with his close-up pictures of a blue whale and a remarkable picture of a great white shark. Mr Andrews said, “The children were absolutely enthralled by the presentation and were delighted to be able to handle the apparatus used in Mr Sadler’s work.”
Rowland White
Mr White is a publisher and writer. His books are mostly on the subject of flight, a lifetime’s fascination for him. He gave the children an illustrated lecture on the history and science of humanity's attempts to emulate the birds from men jumping from towers with makeshift wings, through early flight in hot air balloons and finally the Wright brothers’ successful powered flight. To illustrate his talk as well as showing pictures he demonstrated the theory of flight by making a hovercraft from a CD and a balloon, a folding paper helicopter, a flying ruler and finally, outside, a bottle rocket. All these experiments and more are in one of his books on flight, a copy of which he kindly donated to the library so the children could conduct their own experiments.
