Best Schools - Independent girls’ schools amongst STEM challenge winners

The 2019 regional and category winners have been announced in Shell’s national schools’ competition, the Bright Ideas Challenge. Two independent schools, Durham High School for Girls and St Margaret’s School for Girls, were amongst the winners.

By 2070, it’s estimated there will be around 10 billion people on the planet, with demand for energy set to double. This means the world needs to find new ways to produce more energy.

The Bright Ideas Challenge asked young people aged 11-14 to address this demand and imagine innovative solutions for making our future cities clean, efficient, vibrant places to live, work and play. Students were asked to demonstrate their understanding and application of STEM in their entries, as well as their ability to combine it with creative problem solving and teamwork.

Durham High School for Girls were the north east winners, with the idea of a solar-powered streetlight to ensure street lights aren’t reliant on the national grid and would generate enough energy to power themselves at night.

St Margaret’s School for Girls’ were the Aberdeenshire winners, with the idea of extracting the chemical Xanthopterin from the Oriental Hornet and use in cars to convert light energy, captured by a melanin coating, to electrical energy that can power the car’s battery.

Each won £1,500 to boost their school’s STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths) learning.

Lady Eleanor Holles has become the latest UK-based school to announce the imminent opening of a branch in China

A joint venture with education specialists Trumptech, the school’s first international branch will focus exclusively on secondary education, accommodating 750 pupils who will study a British-based curriculum that prepares them to sit IGCSEs and A Levels.

The 300-year-old institution will launch a co-ed boarding and day school in the southern city of Foshan.

The move follows a trend over the past few years of British schools – including Harrow and Dulwich – establishing branches in Asia.

Despite their increasing ubiquitousness, international schools are not allowed to accept mainland Chinese citizens as students.

Instead, these schools serve the children of the country’s 600,000-odd expatriates and holders of Hong Kong, Taiwan and Macau passports.

LEH Foshan will open for years seven to 11 in 2020 and years 12 and 13 in 2021.