Shrubland Street Primary School launches campaign to fund dream trip for science stars

This month, the team of Year Five pupils were winners at the UK final of the Destination Imagination (DI) Scientific Challenge.

As a result, they have now been invited to compete in the Global Finals in Tennessee from May 24 to 27.

The cost of the trip including travel, accommodation, board and insurance for the team and the adults accompanying them would be £17,000 and the school has now set about trying to raise these funds for the youngsters.

Wendy Hughes, whose daughter Abi is a member of Shrubland Street’s DI team, said: “It is a massive opportunity for all of them.

“I wouldn’t be able to take Abi on a trip like this myself even though I would love to.

“I’ve already been out asking businesses if they can help with sponsorship and Abi has written an essay to show people how much it would mean to her to have this experience.

“We’ll be out in town at the weekend collecting donations as well.

“Hopefully we can raise enough money in time because they’ll not only be representing the school but the whole of the UK as well.”

The DI Project is run as an extracurricular club to enrich the learning opportunities for children at the school.

It brings together science and creativity and helps children to develop their teamwork, leadership and problem solving skills as they work to take on a set challenge.

Destination Imagination is a volunteer-led non-profit organisation with the purpose of inspiring and equipping students to become the next generation of innovators.

Students work in teams to design and build a solution to their challenge and then present these at national tournaments with the top performing teams being invited to the global finals.

Shrubland Street teacher Amanda Poole said: “This is an absolutely incredible opportunity for these children.

“The opening ceremony of this event is like the Olympics and it’s beyond the wildest dreams of most nine or ten-year-olds.

“The team had been working on their project since September and it showed them that if they all came together and worked hard they could achieve anything.

“The skills they have developed throughout this project and could grow even more if they attended the global finals will set them up for life.”

The school is hoping to find a charity or organisation to sponsor the children and appealing to parents for donations. www.gofundme.com/w6zats-destination-imagination