Shropshire pupils celebrate national competition win
A team of youngsters from a Shropshire school have won a hugely prestigious competition at the biggest technology exhibition in the world.
The three girls from Old Hall School in Wellington beat other schools from across the UK with a presentation they created as part of a new learning initiative.
Nina, Sofia and Edyth travelled to London for the finals at BETT Global (British Educational Training and Technology show) earlier this week.
Pupils at the school produced videos in Digital Technology as part of Design4SDGS. The idea is for youngsters to design campaigns around the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
Entries were co-ordinated and sent off by the teaching team at the school which is developing a new Innovation Lab this year helping to support 21st century skills.
The Year 5 and Year 6 pupils were divided into groups and picked Good Health and Well-Being, Sustainable Cities and Communities, Responsible Consumption and Production and Climate Action as the themes for their work.
They had to come up with various initiatives and make a three minute video on their projects which they presented at BETT 2024 attended by more than 30,000 people at ExCeL in London.
“This is all about collaboration skills, critical thinking, problem-solving and communication skills which are paramount in the 21st century,” said the school’s head of Innovation and Technology Mr Jérôme Nogues.
“I was impressed with the work all of our pupils produced and absolutely delighted that one of our teams not only reached the finals but went on to win. What a fantastic achievement.”
Head at Old Hall Mrs Anna Karacan said the whole school community was immensely proud of Nina, Edyth and Sofia and thrilled to hear all about their experience in London.
She said: “They have taken on issues to explore which some of the greatest minds in the world are having to tackle in a bid to find solutions.
"It was wonderful to see them work together showing independence and maturity and also innovative thinking to come up with a presentation which has impressed the judges of what is a very prestigious competition.”
The Old Hall School will be holding a Discovery Morning this Saturday, January 27, from 10am to 12.30pm where parents can find out more about the new Innovation Lab and meet Mr Nogues who is spearheading a number of new initiatives at the school aimed at encouraging skills to prepare children for the world outside of the classroom.
