A LOCAL student is among the winners in aluminium industry’s UK design competition.
Finley Hawkins, who attends St Benedict’s Catholic High School in Alcester, is building a shining reputation for himself as a designer of the future.
Last Wednesday, March 7, he attended a celebratory event at Thinktank Museum in Birmingham to receive his Alu D&T Challenge Design Award 2017.
But the challenge did not end there; Finley came to appreciate the extent of his achievement when he had to talk, at length, to an audience of leading industry experts, eminent architects, judges and talented winners in other categories.
His proud parents and DT teacher watched the Year 9 student give a confident account of his research and construction for the ‘Garden building for a creative homeworker’ category.
The Alu D&T Challenge is a national schools’ competition, linked to the Design and Technology curriculum.
It aims to engage pupils with the material properties and potential of aluminium by challenging them to design a sustainable product for the future using the metal.
The design tasks are based on real-life briefs faced by designers, engineers and manufacturers in three categories – transport, building and packaging.
Finley said: “This is one of the best things that has ever happened to me.
“I didn’t think I’d get this far. I’ve always wanted to do architecture or engineering and this has really motivated me to consider it as a career”. Finley also wanted to thank his teacher, Hannah McDermott, for giving him this amazing opportunity during lesson time.
“It has given me confidence and made me seriously think about my future,” he said.
St Benedict’s was the Sunday Times Highest Ranked Comprehensive School in 2017 in the West Midlands.
