We are delighted to announce that we have been awarded a £1,000 Special Merit Award in this year’s Rolls-Royce Schools Prize for Science & Technology. The prize was awarded following a proposal put forward that would see a school-wide project investigating how technology and automation can help grow critically endangered plant species.
Each year, approximately 1,500 schools across the country submit proposals aimed at promoting science, technology and engineering with a focus on sustainability. As one of fewer than 30 schools selected for the Special Merit Award, we are now able to use to money to develop our project and have the chance to win a further £5,000 if chosen as one of five finalists.
Our project, which will begin in September, will allow children to develop their computing skills by coding and building a system for collecting environmental data and automatically watering the plants. In addition, the children will build on the learning they do in biology, to help understand how they can grow and nurture endangered species that are endemic to small pockets around the world and so need specific growing conditions to thrive. We hope to connect to botanic gardens and other initiatives around the world to help us develop our project further, and nurture our children as environmentally-conscious, digitally-literate citizens of the future.