Young people and staff at Dunoon Grammar School are celebrating success at a number of prestigious UK awards this week.
On Wednesday, Head Teacher David Mitchell, and Paul Gallanagh, the school’s Principal Teacher of Business and Computing, travelled to London to lift the UK Community gong at the esteemed Education Business Awards, presented by four times Olympian Donna Fraser, OBE.
This was followed with news on Thursday that two Dunoon Grammar teams had won at the prestigious Apps for Goods UK Showcase – beating stiff competition from across Great Britain and Ireland.
Swipe n Swap scooped the Future Founders award sponsored by TPX Impact. Designed and coded by Mya McNiven, Tiffany McArthur, Jordan Dgany, Jodie Loy and Olivia Kay this app aims to tackle both the climate and cost of living crises by making it fun and easy to trade pre-loved goods.
David Wallace, Liam Kennedy and Noah Gallanagh created an app that will educate and ‘train’ pet owners and lovers to take better care of their pets and the environment – thanks to a talking AI version of their real actual pets. They received the Sustainable Innovators prize, sponsored by the Bank of New York Mellon.
Argyll and Bute Council’s Policy Lead for Education, Councillor Yvonne McNeilly, said: “Well done to everyone at Dunoon Grammar who contributed to the school’s winning week. It is great to see artificial intelligence playing such a positive role in education. Dunoon Grammar continues to go from strength to strength and its young people are a true credit to Argyll and Bute.”
Mya McNiven from team Swipe n Swap said: “The standard of entries from schools across the UK was really high, so it was a pleasant surprise to hear we had won. Apps for Good has been the best thing I have done!”
Liam Kennedy from team PawPrint added: “We put a lot of work in preparing for the final and are delighted this paid off. We were nervous but the judges put us as ease and this helped us to get our idea across. We’ve had a great Apps for Good experience and have learned about the climate crisis and how technology can help this”.
David Mitchell, Head Teacher, said: “We are going to have to build a bigger trophy cabinet in the school to display the prizes we have been awarded in recent years. We had a fantastic experience in London and it was a lovely surprise to pick up the Community award – considering the quality of the other schools in contention. To return on Thursday to hear we had also won two awards at this year’s Apps for Good Showcase finals was the icing on the cake. I would like to thank Education Business awards for this recognition as well as Apps for Good for offering this rich, active and creative experience to our young people, and the judges from BNY Mellon and TPX Impact for supporting our young people.”
This week’s success is the latest in a growing list of accolades won by young people at Dunoon Grammar School, including the World’s Best Schools Prize and the JA Europe Entrepreneurial School Award.
For further information telephone 01546 604 171, or email press@argyll-bute.gov.uk