QE pupil Sidharth Samant has been awarded the Arkwright Scholarship at a ceremony held at the Institution of Engineering and Technology. The award provides support in the Sixth Form for the country’s best young design and engineering students.
More than 800 top students from schools across the country applied for the scholarship and fewer than a third of these – 263 – were successful. Professor Dame Ann Dowling, Head of the Department of Engineering at Cambridge University, presented Sidharth with the award at the institution’s Savoy Place headquarters. His sponsor for the scholarship was Dr Gerald Avison, of the TTP Group, which comprises leading technology and development companies.
Previous QE Arkwright Scholarship winners Sam Catchpole-Smith and Priyesh Patel have also now won continued scholarship support in Year 13.
The origins of the Arkwright Scholarship date back to 1991, when a group of committed Headteachers who believed that Design & Technology was not being given the profile it deserved as a subject decided to take action. They introduced a scheme to encourage and stimulate high-ability young people to consider engineering and technology as a career. The Arkwright Scholarships Trust saw a steady increase in scholarships awarded over its first few years under the enthusiastic leadership of Tony Pickering, former Head of Pocklington School, near York. Since 2000 generous funding and services from The Smallpeice Trust, based in Leamington Spa, have enabled the scheme to expand. A total of 684 Schools are now affiliated and the scheme has the support of 135 sponsors.
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The rigorous selection process requires candidates to make a detailed application, to sit an aptitude paper and to be interviewed. During the interview, students present their GCSE project work to a panel of interviewers and discuss their commitment to design, engineering and technology.
“We are extremely proud that Sidharth has gained an Arkwright Scholarship: it is due reward for his outstanding work,” said the School’s Head of Design, Simon Vincent. “The Arkwright Scholarship Trust encourages its scholars to act as ambassadors of flourishing Design and Technology departments in their schools, and Sidharth has now joined Sam and Priyesh in fulfilling that role.”