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Year 6 visit Tate & Lyle's Thames Refinery

Year 6 enjoyed a fascinating visit to Tate & Lyle's Thames Refinery to learn about the production process from raw material to the end consumer as part of West Lodge's commitment to STEM education. 

The refinery is one of the largest in the world with a capacity of 1.2 million tonnes per anum.

Pupils learnt about the people, job roles and technology involved in the process, plus the history of the Tate and Lyle brand. 

The pupils explain more:

I really enjoyed seeing the piles of sugar, they were taller than West Lodge School!

We learnt that most of the cargo ships come in at high tide, but we were lucky enough to see a small ship delivering raw materials to the refinery. 

 

I was interested in the robot that picked up the pallets and put them on the shelves. I learnt that the robot weighed the same as an elephant!

We visited the engineering shed and there was a machine that moved all the heavy parts around the shed on a hook suspended from the ceiling.