King’s Hawthornes Crowned National Winners at Young Green Briton Challenge

A group of innovative Year 9 students from King’s Leadership Academy Hawthornes have achieved national recognition after winning the Young Green Briton Challenge 2025, outshining 45 schools from across the UK in the prestigious final held at City Hall, London.

Launched in 2022, the Young Green Briton Challenge is a national programme that empowers students aged 11–16 to explore a broad range of climate and sustainability issues. Participating schools select a full year group to take part in the year-long journey, which combines climate education with innovation, business and citizenship skills. Students identify local sustainability issues and form teams to design either entrepreneurial solutions (Eco-Ventures) or campaigns (Eco-Campaigns). The most promising ideas are awarded seed funding and mentorship, with the best advancing further in the competition.

Three groups of King’s Hawthornes students travelled to the Museum of Liverpool for the regional final, proudly representing their school against 20 competing teams. One group’s project, BouncePadz, particularly impressed the judges. BouncePadz is a system that uses piezoelectric pads to capture and convert kinetic energy from footsteps into usable, renewable electricity. It was one of three winning projects from the region chosen to travel to London to compete in the national final. The concept also impressed the Head of Sustainability at Avanti West Coast, who expressed interest in exploring how the technology could be implemented on train station platforms.

Danielle Spinks, Subject Network Lead for Geography at King’s Hawthornes, accompanied the students to the regional final and praised their efforts, stating: “All our students did us incredibly proud, displaying professionalism, respect and endeavour. The judges were amazed by their confidence and innovative thinking.”

In preparation for the national final, the students produced a video presentation that showcased their invention, which was evaluated by the judging panel ahead of the London event. At City Hall, the team set up an engaging exhibition, displayed prototypes and welcomed VIPs and industry experts who were invited to examine the project.

At the close of the event, participants gathered round to hear King’s Hawthornes students announced as the overall national winners, securing a remarkable achievement for their school and the Liverpool City Region.

Elliot Edwards and Phoenix Ainsworth, two of the students from the winning team, shared their thoughts on being crowned as the winners: “It was a moment of mixed emotions”, said Elliot. “We were surprised but delighted that BouncePadz was chosen as the winning project.” Phoenix agreed, stating: “It was a brilliant feeling to be announced as the winners. We’ve worked so hard and come so far together as a team.”

When asked about their inspiration behind the idea, Elliot explained: “We wanted it to be something simple but effective. We considered a few different ideas before settling on BouncePadz. It’s such a simple way to generate electricity and we’re excited about it potentially being installed in train platforms. The footfall could be constantly generating electricity and helping the environment.”

This project was supported in part by Mayor Steve Rotheram’s Community Environment Fund, which helped the students create the prototype that wowed the judges. Councillor Anthony Burns, Cabinet Member for Net Zero and Leader of St Helens Council, met the students at the regional event and praised their national success: “I am so delighted to hear that the King’s Leadership Hawthornes team were one of the winners at the event in London. This was one of the ideas that particularly fascinated me at the regional heat. They’ve done the Liverpool City Region proud, and I’m thrilled our Community Environment Fund could help them showcase such a brilliant concept to support our journey to net zero by 2040.”

Andrea St John, Principal of King’s Leadership Academy Hawthornes, reflected on the students’ incredible accomplishment: “Developing character and innovation through leadership opportunity is key to education at King’s Hawthornes. It is integral to the mission of the Great Schools Trust. We are so proud of our students and what they have achieved, excelling at a national level. They have worked so hard on this project and it is so rewarding to see this acknowledged beyond the city. They are our sustainable workforce of the future, and we look forward to exploring what they will do next.”

The Great Schools Trust is incredibly proud of this achievement. This impressive win not only celebrates the creativity and teamwork of our young people but also signals a more sustainable future shaped by the next generation of innovators.