Cracking Ideas winners announded

Great Arley School in Lancashire has been announced as the winner of the Wallace and Gromit 2008 Cracking Ideas competition. The children, aged nine and ten, designed a machine to make stacking chairs easier, by using a combination of pincers and magnets. It was born out of the children’s desire to help the school’s site supervisor, Mr Figgins, by taking over his most tiresome job.

Charlie the Chair Stacker

The invention, called ‘Charlie the Chair Stacker’, was selected as the nationwide winner by Nick Park, creator of Wallace and Gromit, who fronted the competition. Other inventions included West Park Primary School in Wolverhampton’s ‘The Wonderful Wacky Manion’ – a teapot that can create any flavour of tea imaginable.

A grand day out

The seven finalists all attended an awards ceremony at the Science Museum in London presented by How2 presenter Gareth ‘Gaz Top’ Jones and Minister of State for Higher Education and Intellectual Property, David Lammy. Great Arley School’s prizes include an original bespoke trophy made by the model-making department at Aardman Animations and a preview screening at their school of the new Wallace and Gromit short film, A Matter of Loaf and Death.

Amanda Johnstone, the class teacher of the winning children at Great Arley School, praised her students for their hard work and dedication to the project: ‘I am so proud of the children. They put in such a lot of effort, and I am delighted that it has paid off for them. The project really brought out their creative ability and I think we all learnt something about patents and intellectual property.’

Inspiring young inventors

Cracking Ideas is the biggest Government-backed project of its kind and uses a combination of specific lesson plans, teaching resources and a dedicated website – www.crackingideas.com – to encourage innovation among Key Stage Two children as part of the National Curriculum. The competition within the project, which is run by the UK Intellectual Property Office, encouraged children to design an environmentally friendly appliance that could be used in Wallace and Gromit’s house.