Pupil Design Awards winners

Year 7 & 8

Team: Inayaah & Archita

School: King Edward VI Handsworth School for Girls

Design: Learning Ninja (Switched On) – an app and card game which enables primary-aged pupils to easily access work remotely. It contains fun, educational games and options for pupils to find tutors. Parents can also access their own version of the app to support their children. The ninja mascot encourages and challenges pupils on their educational journey.

Judges were particularly impressed by the level of research conducted, with one commenting how moving it was, demonstrating excellent empathy for service users facing the issue of the digital divide. The design thinking process had clearly been followed and showed good understanding of the different stages, with judges particularly praising the prototyping and feedback loops which were important in helping to shape the final proposal.

Year 9 & 10

School: Falinge Park High School

Design: Forgotten Heroes (Roots to Empowerment) – a campaign rooted in the local community, exploring and celebrating the contributions of Black and Asian soldiers in World War 2. The pupils used social media to reach out into their local community to collaborate with family members of veterans to create videos and essays telling the story of their ancestors’ contributions, hosted on the school’s website, YouTube and social media accounts.

The judges loved the fact there was already so much interest in the project, particularly from think tank British Futures, and were excited by the impact it was having beyond the classroom and in the local community. The judges were really impressed by the team’s courage to be spokespeople for their project and go out into the community to talk about their work. Judges felt the pupils demonstrated strong design thinking in terms of the process and research, and responded to all aspects of the judging criteria to create a holistic outcome.

Year 11, 12 & 13

Team: Chehara

School: South Hampstead High School

Design: How might we raise cultural awareness in schools? (Roots to Empowerment) – an interactive display box to be placed in different areas around schools, for pupils to engage with and educate themselves about the heritage of different cultures.

The judges felt the design process for this proposal was outstanding. It was thorough and rigorous, and the complexity of the brief was narrowed down into a coherent outcome. Judges were impressed with ideas around diversifying the idea and commended this consideration and iteration. Chehara’s presentation was extremely articulate and demonstrated an in-depth level of thinking around viability and cost. Judges felt that the Chehara’s understanding of the role of social design was compelling, mature and insightful, going well beyond a personal desire to make a difference. The judges truly felt that Chehara has great potential to become a designer.

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• Entry requirements and judging
• Sign up for the Pupil Design Awards