20 May 2016

All the children in Years 5 and 6 took part in the Young Innovators Challenge sponsored by 3M Healthcare and supported by The Loughborough Echo Newspaper and the Loughborough Learning Alliance.

The programme encourages young people to view Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) as dynamic and inspiring subjects.

After learning more about the different challenges and categories available to them, the children then started to plan their 'products'.

Several weeks later, each child/group presented their products to their peers, their Headteacher and class teache, after which they were given some constructive feedback. Afterwards, the children had the opportunity to improve and act upon the feedback before finally presenting their products to a team of Unknown judges from 3M.

Each category had its own criteria which the children had to meet, and each group/child had to give a short presentation about their product including giving details about the design and build/make process. Marks were awarded by the judges against a set of known criteria covering a range of areas including: market research, the build/make process, aesthetics and visual appeal.

All 20 children from Years 5 and 6 took their innovations to the 3M head offices in Loughborough and we were thrilled that they all presented their work with enthusiasm and professionalism. They received individual feedback from the judges and certificates for entering the competition.

The children were thoroughly engaged and enthusiastic about their experiences. Every child gained an insight into how STEM is part of everyday life and enjoyed the process and the competition.

This year WOW had two finalists – one in the super Foods Challenge, with her super banana pancakes; and one in the Echo Tech challenge, Harriet with her horse-shoe art.

The finalists along with their parent, teacher and Headteacher were all invited down to Loughborough for the awards evening where we were thrilled to find out that we had an overall winner in the Echo Tech Challenge, for her amazing horse-shoe art! This really was an amazing piece of recycled art work.

As part of the prize giving evening, the girls met education secretarty Rt.Hon Nicky Morgan MP, received gift vouchers and won an amazing £750 for our school. Well done!