Accolade for young Devon scientists

Two pupils at a Tiverton school have been shortlisted for the 2015 Student of the Year Awards, a national programme to recognise talent and hard work and celebrate success.

Chris Hamilton and Natalie Cotton, both aged 17 and pupils at Blundell’s School, have been shortlisted in the Science and Engineering category and will attend the awards ceremony in London next month, when the winners of the first Student of the Year Awards will be announced.

Chris and Natalie are up against four other students in their category and are the only students from the West Country to be shortlisted for any of the eleven categories. The awards programme is backed by the Government and the business community and has worked with every secondary school and FE college in the UK (almost 5000 institutions) to find the shortlisted students. The judging panel is made up of business leaders, government ministers, entrepreneurs and leading educationalists.

This is not Chris and Natalie’s first taste of national success. With team mate Beth Squires, they were recently runners up in the Royal Society of Chemistry's National Schools' Analyst Competition final, finishing above 398 other schools that entered the competition. Natalie also recently came third out of 107 entries in the Newnham Science Prize, an essay competition run by Newnham College, Cambridge. Both Chris and Natalie are talented musicians, regularly taking part in the many musical events at Blundell’s and Chris designed the lighting for the school play, Lorna Doone. He has been appointed Head Boy for the new school year.