Five local schools compete in national competition warm-up

Winner John O'Gaunt to compete for national prize

TEAMS from five West Berkshire schools battled it out last week for the chance to pit their wits against the best engineers at schools across the country and a cash prize of £1,000.

Park House School was the host for the IET Faraday Challenge on February 10, which saw Park House, St Gabriel’s, Trinity School, John O’Gaunt and The Downs schools battling it out to research, design and create a prototype solution to an engineering problem.

The competition was a warm-up event for national competition Micro:Bit which will see hundreds of entrants compete from all over the country.

The winning team, who will now go through to compete for the national prize, was John O’ Gaunt pupils Chloe O’Brian, Theo Carreck, Toby Wheeler, Katherin Natton-Bell, Thomas Morgan-Matthews and Zoe Maidment

The Hungerford school will now go on to participate in the initial stages of the national competition, with the ambition of being crowned the winner.

The head of computer science and IT at Park House, Pete Marshman, said: “Our school is passionate about giving our students new and exciting opportunities to engage in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) subjects.

“A strong UK economy relies on great engineering output, and it is crucial to get the engineers of the future at an early age.”

The event is sponsored by The Science and Technology Facilities Council, Bosch, the UK Electronics Skills Foundation and the Jack Pletchey Foundation.