Record number of pupils win National Design Scholarship

Published by Oakham School on Tuesday 15th of October 2013

Four students from Oakham School have been awarded a national design award. Stuart Doughty, Gregory Sale, James Dermott and Oren Patel Champion have each won the much-coveted Arkwright Scholarship.

This national award identifies, inspires and nurtures future leaders in engineering and related areas of design. As well as the valuable recognition (the scheme is widely respected by universities and industry), Scholars also receive a £600 financial award to help with the cost of materials, and they have access to a range of enrichment events such as engineering experience days.

'With over 1,200 students applying, Oakham's pupils do exceptionally well to get through the rigorous selection process to regularly win the award. In the last 16 years there have been 19 Arkwright Scholars from Oakham, and this year we are particularly pleased to have won four scholarships, the highest number to date,' says Head of Design Technology, Tim Weston.

The students, all aged between 16 and 17, found the application process to be 'lengthy and challenging'. They had to get through three different stages to win the award: an application form, a demanding two-hour exam where they had to think of three solutions to a complex design problem, and a gruelling interview. These interviews took place at the Universities of Cambridge, Sheffield, Loughborough and Bath in front of both academics and design experts. During the interview, Stuart, Gregory and James talked through their GCSE design work of an ipod dock (shown in the background of the photograph), whilst Oren took his project on the viscosity of oil to discuss.

The pupils are already planning their future design careers with Gregory aspiring to study engineering at Cambridge and Stuart is hoping to study Maritime Engineering.
These successes come on the back of a number of design accolades given to Oakham pupils. This includes Fred Warbarton being judged to be one of the top 5 engineers in the country and winning the accolade of 'Young Engineer for Britain Craftsmanship Award'.

All of the winners will be taking part in an award ceremony on the 1st November in London.