UK & Ireland Champions – 11–14 Category 

One of our proudest STEM achievements came when The Plant Enforcers—Rosie, Darcy-Ella, Indy and Flo (Year 9)—were crowned winners of the 11–14 category in Samsung Solve for Tomorrow, becoming champions across the UK and Ireland after competing against more than 2,000 students.

What made the competition particularly special was that every Year 9 student at APHS took part. Working collaboratively in their Design & Technology lessons, students identified real-world problems and designed app-based solutions with genuine social and environmental impact. The project gave every student the opportunity to experience purposeful design thinking while showing that ideas developed in the classroom can make a difference beyond school.

From classroom idea to national champions

After being selected as semi-finalists, our students took part in an inspiring Samsung Solve for Tomorrow Prototyping Workshop led by Katie Barbour from Tech She Can. Working collaboratively, they rapidly developed, tested and refined their ideas through sketching, modelling and evaluating prototypes while sharing constructive feedback with one another.

The Plant Enforcers continued to develop their award-winning app, which encourages people to plant more and become more aware of the nature around them. Along the way, they received mentoring from Samsung app developer Marc Haxall, created a professional video pitch and earned their place at the national final at Samsung KX in London.

Pitching their idea live to a panel of judges was an unforgettable experience. They confidently answered questions from industry experts before hearing inspiring talks from Ben Yoon, President of Samsung UK & Ireland, and Mete Coban MBE, Deputy Mayor of London.

Winning the national title was an incredible confidence boost for the team—especially as it was one student's first ever trip to London!

An unforgettable reward

As national champions, the team enjoyed some incredible opportunities:

• A work experience day at Samsung UK Headquarters in London

• Professional mentoring from Samsung's development team

• Samsung laptops, tablets and earbuds for the winning team

• Seeing their winning design displayed on the giant Samsung screen in Piccadilly Circus

A team effort

"Their achievement has been exceptional, and we have all been amazed by their personal development throughout the competition. Well done to Year 9s Rosie, Darcy-Ella, Indy and Flo."
Ms Lucinda Holmes, Art, Design & Technology Teacher

The success of The Plant Enforcers was supported every step of the way by Ms Lucinda Holmes, whose encouragement, guidance and commitment helped the team progress through each stage of the competition—from developing their classroom concept and preparing their semi-final submission to supporting them at the London final and celebrating their first-place finish.

Why competitions matter

"Competitions like Samsung Solve for Tomorrow are hugely valuable in Design and Technology because they provide authentic, purposeful learning experiences. Students are far more engaged when working on meaningful challenges linked to real users and real issues, and it helps them see the relevance of D&T, STEM and innovation in the wider world. It was wonderful to see students so motivated, creative and proud of their work."
Mrs Amanda Moffat, D&T Teacher & STEM Coordinator

We are incredibly proud of every Year 9 student who embraced the challenge, and especially of The Plant Enforcers for becoming Samsung Solve for Tomorrow 11–14 UK & Ireland Champions. Their success has shown what's possible when creativity, teamwork and purposeful design come together—and we're already excited to see what next year's Year 9 students will create!

Click to view The Plant Enforcers's Samsung Solve for Tomorrow Prototype Presentation 

Greenpower Education Trust

From building our first electric kit car in 2022 to competing on iconic circuits like Lotus Hethel and the Goodwood International Final, Greenpower has become one of APHS's flagship STEM programmes. Students become engineers, mechanics, designers and strategists, developing real-world skills through every stage of designing, building and racing electric cars.

2025 marked a landmark year for our APHS Ambition team. After qualifying for the Greenpower International Final at Goodwood for a second consecutive year—having won the Portfolio Award there in 2024—they were awarded the prestigious Ford Engineering Award, recognising their outstanding engineering, innovation and problem-solving.

Our growing Greenpower Goblin programme also celebrated an exciting milestone, with our new primary team, APHS Hercules, making an impressive competitive debut at the Norfolk Goblin Event at Scottow Enterprise Park, winning 1st Place in the Drag Event and 3rd Place in the Sprint.

Massive congratulations to Jorja B (Year 7) for designing the winning entry in the Enginuity Skills Awards 2023 Table Centrepiece Competition which was a national design competition run in partnership with the Design & Technology Association!
Jorja spotted the competition in the D&T/STEM Competitions Google Classroom (Code: 3dvepj5) and worked on her design independently at lunchtimes and after school.

According to the judges, ‘The standard of entries was extremely high so Jorja should be very proud of her achievement. This is the first year we ran the competition and the imagination and creativity that has been shown by the children far surpassed our expectations.’

Jorja received a £75 amazon voucher, an engineering book and a Sphero Bolt and a Robotics Workshop with Sphero Bolts for her class run by Tablet Academy https://shop.ta.education/product/sphero-bolt/ as her prize!

As part of her competition entry, Jorja had to write about what she enjoyed most about Design & Technology and here is her submission:

"Design & Technology is my favourite subject because I love designing things! I’ve always been creative and that’s what I love most about D&T. You get to let your imagination and creativity take over to create new things and improve things that have already been invented. It helps keep thing fresh and new.

It’s also about making mistakes like when making my prototype for this competition, I ran into a few problems with it leaning and I just love a good problem to solve and that’s the fun of it, learning from mistakes and the thrill of finding a new way that works better and improves your design.

I also love competitions, (that’s why I entered this one) and there’s plenty of Design & Technology ones and I really enjoy them because it helps me develop my growth mindset and I love seeing the pictures of my progress."

Before Greenpower became our flagship engineering programme, APHS STEM Club was already competing on the international stage through Robotex International, one of the world's largest robotics competitions.

Our students designed, built and programmed LEGO Mindstorms robots before representing the school at the Robotex International Finals in Tallinn, Estonia—an incredible achievement for a small rural school.

Highlights

• 2019 – APHS STEM Club team qualified for the Robotex International Finals in Tallinn, led by Mrs Amanda Moffat

• 2022 – APHS Computer Club team, led by Mr Robert Corby, also qualified for the Robotex International Finals, continuing the school's proud robotics tradition.

• Students developed coding, engineering and problem-solving skills while competing alongside teams from around the world.

Robotex helped establish APHS's culture of ambitious STEM enrichment and laid the foundations for many of the engineering opportunities our students enjoy today.