School wins special award in national design competition

The team of four Year 8 boys from Parkside Academy, Willington, reached the national finals of the Solutions For The Planet’s ‘Big Ideas’ competition after winning the regional finals at Sunderland University.

The competition challenges youngsters to design sustainable solutions to support the planet, and Jenson Yardley, Finlay Weir, Reece Ross-Hawkins, and Samuel Shotton produced a concept for an automated, solar-powered tractor.

They travelled to the Science Museum, in London, for the national final and won The Barker Award for their presentation skills, professionalism, and confidence.

It was the culmination of a project in which 60 students from Parkside Academy – part of the Advance Learning Partnership – started working on the Big Ideas programme last December.

Geography teacher Megan Baker, who led the project, said: “The boys did extremely well, and I’m so proud of how far they’ve come since the project started. They believed in their idea, and it was great to see their confidence shine through in front of such a big audience.”

The boys were mentored by Kali Moat, from TARMAC, and Alex Brightman, from Northern Gas.

Left to right: Megan Baker, Jenson, Finlay, Kali Moat (mentor from TARMAC), Reece, Samuel, and Alex Brightman (mentor from Northern Gas Networks). (Image: Parkside Academy)

Miss Baker said: “Both mentors worked tirelessly to ensure the boys had expert support throughout the programme. They have exposed the boys to careers in STEM and helped them immensely with their presentation skills.”

Rhys, whose auntie is a farmer, said: “We had a lot of confidence in our idea. It had to be a sustainable solution and we worked out that there would be lots of sun to power a tractor in open fields.”

Samuel said: “We were quite nervous after seeing the other groups, but it was really special to get such positive feedback from the judges.”

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Jenson said: “I’m really proud that we were all in it together as a team and supported each other.”

Finlay added: “It was a lot of fun to work as a team and to win an award was a bonus.”

The Barker Award is in memory of Elaine Barker, a passionate educator and powerful communicator, who was former Programme Director of Solutions for the Planet.