Woldingham School students have recently been invited to both Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle for awards ceremonies.
Three young scientists, Imogen Barry, Maria Nazhmeddinova and Milan Wood, won the most innovative idea in the 11-16 age group Education Category, out of 1,400 entries, in this year’s STEM Teen Tech Awards, and were congratulated and presented with their first prize by HRH Duke of York. The girls created an app called My School Trip (MyST), designed to help and inspire teachers to book fun and exciting school trips. A prototype app was produced in conjunction with Manchester-based company, Dreamr, who spent a day at Woldingham with the girls, working on its development for which they were extremely grateful.
The girls said the day at Buckingham Palace was “an amazing, once-in-a-life-time experience and a great opportunity to see the hard work and enthusiasm our generation has for STEM subjects.”
Milan also commented: “I would personally encourage other pupils from Woldingham School to take part in the Teen Tech competition as the skills gained from it are very useful for the future. I am looking forward to TeenTech 2017!”
Lily Martin was invited to go to Windsor Castle with her grandmother, Woldingham alumna Sacha French (née Wild), to collect an MBE for her years of charitable work in Surrey. Lily was “overwhelmed with delight” when she heard that the Queen herself would be presenting her grandmother with the award, as she holds only three out of the 27 ceremonies held each year at the royal palaces.
Lily comments: “As my granny came through I could feel my heart thumping beneath my skin, as I was so nervous for her, but she did the sequence effortlessly. I wanted to capture this moment forever as it was so special. Everything felt so surreal!”
Sacha’s charitable work, spanning some 50 years, has been with the NSPCC, RDA (Riding for the Disabled) and RABI (Royal Agricultural Benevolent Institution). It was a proud moment for Lily and her family and following the ceremony, the guests were given a tour of the state rooms in the castle. Lily stated proudly: “It was such an amazing day and one of the best days of my life, as well as for my Granny, and I think we will remember it for a very long time to come.”