Burgess Hill school shortlisted for national design contest

A Burgess Hill school has become one of seven schools in the country to be shortlisted in a design competition.
The Burgess Hill Academy team have designed a wooden play cube containing toy cars, which turns into a play road map for children SUS-210430-124545001The Burgess Hill Academy team have designed a wooden play cube containing toy cars, which turns into a play road map for children SUS-210430-124545001
The Burgess Hill Academy team have designed a wooden play cube containing toy cars, which turns into a play road map for children SUS-210430-124545001

The Burgess Hill Academy, in Station Road, has been successful in the Design Ventura 2020 competition.

The competition, which is a free, design and enterprise challenge for students from years nine to 11, and supported by industry professionals, invited teams of students aged 13 to 16 to design a new product to improve everyday life which would retail for under £10.

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A spokesman for the school said: “Thank you to all the teachers and students who have worked so hard on this year’s project.

“The Covid-19 pandemic has made this a very challenging year, especially for teachers, students and schools.

“Despite these challenges, we have been incredibly impressed by the creativity and effort students have put into this year’s competition.

“This year we have a shortlist of seven state schools in the main competition to allow for social distancing at this year’s celebration event in June.”

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This year, all the shortlisted schools were asked to submit a three minute pitch video to be reviewed by the judges.

The Burgess Hill Academy made a wooden play cube containing toy cars, which transforms into a road map play scene for young children.

The team will now be invited to attend an online pitching event to test their entrepreneurial skills in front of a panel of judges including Sebastian Conran, designer and trustee at the Design Museum, and Yinka Ilori, artist, designer and Design Ventura 2020 brief setter.

Lareena Hilton, global head of brand communications and corporate social responsibility (CSR)at Deutsche Bank, said: “In the UK our CSR Born to Be education programme aims to help state secondary school students build the skills needed for 21st century employment.

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“Design Ventura is core to this, providing young people with fantastic hands-on experience of problem-solving, commercial design and vital business skills.

“Deutsche Bank employees get involved too, showing students how design skills apply to their roles in banking and finance.

“This year has been incredibly challenging for students, teachers and schools, and we have been really impressed by the creativity and hard work shown by students in response to this year’s brief.

“The shortlisted entries are all superb ideas!”

The final winning team announced on Friday, June 11 will get the opportunity to work with a leading design studio to develop their product for manufacture and sale in the Design Museum Shop, with all the profits going to a charity of the students’ choice.

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Harry Mitchell, co-founder and creative director at Beta Design Office, said: “The standard of work was very high as always and some really clever designs, it was a real pleasure to judge the entries for shortlisting.

“Best of luck to everyone who entered.”