A team of seven pupils in Year 9 (who are now in a Year group ‘bubble’) have won a prize for their entry to The Great Exhibition at Home competition!

Aarya, Nishi, Adhya, Dalola, Kimi, Erin and Mimi who entered the competition when they were in Year 8 last year, achieved fourth place in the competition run by Big Ideas, a London-based organisation whose mission is to support projects to bring countries and communities together.

In the spirit of Prince Albert’s original Great Exhibition, which showcased the most exciting Victorian technology and inventions from 1851, students across the country took part in engineering challenges and created their own Great Exhibitions whilst at home during the summer term lockdown. Participants were asked to create a 1-minute video presenting their Great Exhibition at Home, which tackled the question: How can engineering help protect the planet?

Year 8 team entry to the Great Exhibition Competition 2020 from Withington Girls’ School on Vimeo.

Big Ideas stated that the remote learning competition, which saw students across the country take part during lockdown, received an exceptionally high standard of entries which were judged by Nigel Williams, Secretary for The Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851, Scott Atkinson, Education Programmes Manager from The Royal Academy of Engineering and Dr Virginia Crompton, CEO of Big Ideas. After much deliberation, seven entries were selected to receive top prizes for their school.

The WGS team achieved fourth place and have won a 30-minute digital meeting with one of Big Ideas’ inspiring engineers and an individual prize voucher. They will have an online meeting with Milly Hennayake, a civil engineer who is passionate about using her skills to keep communities safe. Milly grew up living in Sri Lanka and the UK before going on to study Civil Engineering at the University of Cambridge. She is now a civil engineer in the water engineering team at Arup.

Mrs Bradshaw and Dr Pitts said: “This is a fantastic achievement and this team, who worked together from each of their individual homes, should be very proud.”

Nigel Williams, Secretary for The Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851 said: “Well done to everyone who took part; the spirit of the Great Exhibition clearly lives on!”