Great Alne girls’ rooftop idea is engineering excellence

THREE children from Great Alne Primary School scooped first prize in a national engineering contest to make schools more sustainable.

Year 6 pupils Anna Holder, Bella Carr and Chloe McStrafick competed against 370 entries from around the UK to win the Net Zero Superheroes competition to engineer a feature to help the school achieve net zero.

Their winning idea was to improve the energy efficiency of the building by adding a garden roof which would act as insulation as well as supporting biodiversity. Compost for the garden would come from the school lunch leftovers and would be watered by collecting rainwater.

Teacher Louise Watt said: “I was delighted to receive the fantastic news that Great Alne had won the competition. I am so proud of the girls for their enthusiasm, hard work and their brilliant idea.

“The children are passionate about trying to reduce their carbon footprint and have learnt such a lot from being involved in this engineering project.”

As winner of the competition, which was run by SNC-Lavalin, the girls each won a build-your-own radio and solar powered crab robot as well as a trip for their class to the Think Tank in Birmingham.