The Oxfordshire Branch of the British Computer Society (BCS) has announced the winners of its Schools Web Competition 2005, in which IT savvy school kids across the county demonstrated creativity and teamwork to design and set up appealing, eye-catching and useful websites for their school.
This year’s competition received a record number of entries, reflecting the growing prestige of the Web Competition in recognising excellence and innovation among school children in Oxfordshire, and in doing so is generating much interest from across the UK with plans to introduce similar competitions in other counties.
According to Adrian Walmsley, Chair of the BCS Oxfordshire Branch “The BCS strives hard to promote IT to all sectors of society and this competition underlines the society’s commitment to driving IT literacy standards from an early age and to create awareness and interest in IT as a career option to children. The competition also shows how IT encompasses a wide range of skills today and that there is more to computing and IT than just programming or producing data”.
This year’s Challenge Cup winners, St Birinus School, so impressed the judges that they have been awarded the esteemed prize of a consultancy contract with the BCS in which they will be invited to review the society’s forthcoming new and improved website and provide their own input into the project. The major winners of this year’s awards are:
- St Birinus School, who received this year’s prestigious BCS Challenge Cup for sustained Innovation and Excellence for their high function website incorporating a home grown content manager. Furthermore St Birinus received USB2 512Mb Memory keys and a BCS consultancy contract.
- Rush Common, who received the Junior First Prize for their easily navigated multi-media website, rewarded by prizes of a Shield/PC for their school and individual PS2s.
- Abingdon School, who received the Senior First Prize for their website which features its own domain name and integrated a number of technical features. For their achievement, they were awarded a Shield/PC for their school and individual iPod shuffles.
BCS President David Morriss who presented the BCS Challenge Cup was delighted by the achievement exhibited by all the award winners. “It is clear that today’s youngsters are taking a more active interest in IT. This has been achieved through the hard work and excellent level of commitment from schools, which in turn produces extremely high standards, the likes of which are on display for all to see through outstanding events such as the Oxfordshire Branch Web Competition which has continued to grow on its successes year on year”.
To see a list of all of this year’s winners and the history of the event, go to the BCS Oxfordshire Branch Website and follow the links: www.oxon.bcs.org
For further information contact:
Keith Mclaren
Deputy PR Manager & Press Officer
The British Computer Society
Tel: 01793 417637
Email: keith.mclaren@hq.bcs.org.uk
