STUDENTS at an Irthlingborough secondary school have taken on a new challenge that could make a big impact on the way young people use social networking sites.
This year’s County Schools Challenge was launched earlier this month at Huxlow Science College and aims to raise awareness and understanding about cyberbullying and how to prevent it.
Involving 24 schools across the county, the annual challenge ends in a final showcase where the selected competitors go on stage at Wellingborough Castle to present their business ideas to a Dragon’s Den-style panel of judges.
At Huxlow, head of careers at the college, Sam Letts, outlined the purpose of the day and Shaun Johnson from the Northamptonshire Arson Task Force gave a brief history of the County Schools Challenge, which began in 2009, to introduce it to the 148 enthusiastic year eight pupils.
The students formed groups to discuss their ideas and explore different ways to highlight this growing social problem. They threw themselves into the task of inventing a product and developing a business plan to help raise awareness and encourage young people to stay safe and report cyber-bullying.
Alan Piggot, managing director of local firm Promote-It, was also there to share his experience and knowledge about marketing and finance, helping students prepare their business plan and find the best ways to promote their product.
At the end of a long day, the chosen group from each class pitched their ideas to a school judging panel, comprising the head of year Gaynor Kenyon, head of careers education Sam Letts and PC Neil Cowley from Northamptonshire Police.
Every group worked hard to meet the criteria, from initial concept to committing their final idea to paper. The panel finally selected Team Cyberworld as overall winner, for their imaginative and unusual idea. They will now represent Huxlow Science College at the semi-finals in June.
Sam Letts, who is leading the project for the school, said: “Another fantastic County Challenge has been and gone and the overall levels of hard work, creativity and innovation have surpassed previous year groups.
“Every student engaged really well and were motivated and enthused to try and create business solutions to online bullying. There was a certain buzz among the students and I hope this can continue to spread across other year groups.
“There were a couple of groups that didn’t even make the final, but their ideas and videos were so good that I shall be incorporating them in to school assemblies and PSHE schemes.
“Thanks again for the support from all involved, especially Northamptonshire Police.”
Pictured above – BEATING THE BULLIES: Students enthusiastically came up with business solutions to online bullying.