Hurst's Young Engineers of the Year 2019

A team of Lower Sixth students from Hurst College took part in the Big Bang South East Region Science and Engineering Competition last month and won two special awards, the overall competition and the title of Young Engineers of the Year.

Bella Shepard, Matthieu Bridger, Olivia Hampshire and George Rodriguez were showcasing their Engineering Education Scheme and Gold CREST project on Improving Coagulation and Flocculation in Wastewater Treatment.

Since winning an innovation award in April they worked tirelessly on improving their experimental data and design of static mixers. They tested their revolutionary and totally organic chemical, chitosan, on actual treated sewage water, which produced impressive results to support its suggested use as a replacement for the currently used ferric chloride, which leaves a heavy metal residue. They also designed and 3D printed in array of static mixers, along with a creative modular system of incorporating the mixers into currently used sewage treatment plants.

The team were delighted to be given two special awards: the Electric Prize for Commercial Potential sponsored by Eurotherm and the Prize for Research sponsored by Photek. These were topped, however, by the team being announced overall winners of the competition and a place in the national finals.

Hurst College students sit on 'top of the bench'!

A team of students from Years 9, 10 and 11 at Hurst College won the Top of the Bench chemistry competition held in Lewes.

Lottie Ashton, Thomas Manchester, Saoirse Osbourne and Oscar Jaffe performed well in the annual competition run by the Royal Society of Chemistry, to take the title from Brighton College in second and Eastbourne College in third.

Both Year 9 students, Lottie and Tom, carried out an investigation into reactivity and displacement reactions. Saoirse investigated rates of reactions that involved reacting magnesium with an acid, and Oscar carried out a titration to determine the concentration of hydrochloric acid. The team then came together at the end to compete in the multiple choice quiz.

Hurst College in community action

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Hurst College students in action around Hurstpierpoint

Every year Hurstpierpoint College’s Senior School sends out three year groups, with staff, to do project work in the local vicinity as part of their Community Action Day initiative at the end of the summer term.

This year the college dispatched 470 pupils and 79 staff to 32 locations, to perform manual chores and maintenance work for charities and other worthy organisations. The community-oriented students, accompanied by dedicated members of staff, took up their mops, rakes, spades and trowels to participate in one of the college’s most valued annual traditions.

Projects ranged from tidying public footpaths, clearing back scrub on the South Downs and gardening in organic cooperatives to serving in elderly care centres and washing windows and minibuses. The college also sent a concert party to a care home and a gang show to a school for children with complex needs.

Locations and organisations in the immediate vicinity to benefit included the Millennium Gardens and allotments in the village, Paws and Claws Animal Rescue Service in Sayers Common and Age Concern in Hassocks.

This is one of a number of days in the year when Hurst College and its students gives something back to the local community in a more direct way.