Inventor Sir James Dyson has returned to Gresham’s in Norfolk to open a new £18.5m building that he paid for, North Norfolk News reports.
The Dyson STEAM Building – announced in 2019 – is a place where pupils can become absorbed in science, technology, engineering and mathematics alongside art and design.
Sir James donated the money to the school because he is a former pupil at Gresham’s and his father was a classics teacher there. When his father died from cancer at the age of just 43, the school allowed Dyson to continue his education there.
Speaking to students at the opening on Saturday (July 2), Sir James said: “Young people shouldn’t have to choose between science and the arts at an early stage of their life.
“We need a generation of engineers and scientists who are up to the challenge, and equipped to solve the problems of the age.”
Sir James said Gresham’s students were already “blurring the divide between disciplines in a most creative way” in the new centre.
Sir James said he had always wanted to engineer and make things, and encouraged the students to be curious.
