ORMISTON Park Academy are set to provide professional design workshops ahead of a nationwide Pupil Design Awards competition.

The Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA) has been working with the school – which is based in Belhus Park Lane, Aveley – to provide the workshops in the build-up to the RSA’s contest.

The partnership is part of the commitment of the academy’s sponsor, Ormiston Academies Trust (OAT), to provide enrichment opportunities for students through its Enrichment Charter.

And Ormiston Park Academy principal Huw Derrick is pleased to be providing the workshops.

He said: “I’m so pleased that we’ve been able to offer OPA students this opportunity to receive training and advice from professionals and experts in the design world.

“We really want to get our students excited about design and creative thinking, and I know our students will rise to meet this challenge.”

Nick Hudson, the chief executive of OAT, is excited about the collaboration.

“We’re very excited about this collaboration between The RSA and OAT, and all of the opportunities it will provide for our students,” he said.

“Providing opportunities for enrichment is a big priority for OAT and hugely important to help raise aspirations and broaden the horizons of all the students within our Trust.”

The RSA Pupil Design Awards involves students aged 12-17 coming up with innovative ideas to overcome real life problems.

The design problems students will solve are divided into three categories.

‘Knowing me knowing you’ will allow the pupils to find ways to bolster community cohesion, ‘Learning independently’ is tailored towards using assistive technology more effectively to make learning easier for students with a disability and ‘Food is not rubbish’ is set to look at helping to reduce food waste. The workshops are divided into two sessions – the first session is an introduction to design thinking and helps students learn to think like a designer.

The second session will provide students with support tailored to them for their various design projects, as well as an insight into what it’s like to work in the design world.

Both workshops are delivered by design professionals and experts and students at the academy are now preparing for their second session, which will take place at the end of April.

Pupils will be pitching their ideas to RSA mentors.

The deadline for entries for the competition is in May and the winners will be announced in July.