A Ridgeway Academy student has been recognised as the winner in Shell’s National Schools’ competition – The Bright Ideas Challenge.

Scarlett Beskeen in Year 9 won the competition with an entry using Minecraft to design her future city.

Students were tasked with using their science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) skills to come up with creative solutions to the energy challenges that cities will face in 2050.

Scarlett worked on this in her geography lessons in lockdown and came up with some fantastic ideas for future designs.

The school received £10,000 from Shell that will go towards STEM projects at Ridgeway Academy.

The academy will be working with Scarlett and a group of Year 9 students to decide how to spend the money.

Scarlett also won a prize pack which includes a 12-month subscription to KiwiCo’s ‘Tinker Crate’ kit (a monthly package), a Tech Will Save us ‘Spark pack’ – which will get students building and coding their own handheld games console and music synth – plus a 3-month subscription to the Future Inventors Club.

Sarah Mitcherson, headteacher, said: “We are all extremely proud of Scarlett’s achievement, many congratulations to her – a future engineer.”

To find out more about The Bright Ideas Challenge, go to shell.co.uk/brightideaschallenge.