GDST Charity Tech Challenge 2021

Junior girls from across the GDST family participated in the Charity Tech Challenge 2021, showcasing their sense of social conscience while applying their entrepreneurial skills to a real-life scenario.

The objective of the challenge was to set up a creditable charitable enterprise.

Nine teams made up of twenty-seven Year 5 pupils from Croydon High School, Blackheath High School and Royal High School Bath met virtually each week for five weeks to brainstorm, collaborate and launch a charity to support a cause close to their hearts.

The girls demonstrated brilliant business acumen, seeing their ideas through from rough ideas on paper to a comprehensive business plan for a non-profit organisation leading to live websites. Some groups even designed branded merchandise and planned fundraising events.

At the final session, each team presented their charitable enterprise to the judges, selected from across the GDST family and, while extremely impressed by the high standard of work produced by everyone, they chose two top teams. Gold Award went to WalkforWater and Silver Award to Mental Health foundation, two charities that address the highly important issues of sustainability and mental health.

This cross-Trust initiative was the brainchild of Maya Krishnamurthy, Teacher of Computer Science and Enterprise Technology at Croydon High School.

“I am so proud of what the pupils have achieved and how they led the learning by being creative and proactive”, said Maya. “They enjoyed collaborating and working with pupils from other schools and making new friends. At first, I was apprehensive about the success of a virtual project, but the pupils have (yet again!) proved their resilience and adaptability to a changing world. In a broader context, the girls not only harnessed the power of technology to collaboratively research and create marketing content for their charities, but this project also created an awareness in them on important social issues and the kind of contribution each of us can make towards a better world.”

In belonging to a family of 25 schools, our girls enjoy plentiful opportunities to connect, learn and collaborate with students from across the UK. Click on the links below to read about some of our cross-Trust initiatives and events:

Junior Techathon 2021
Events in partnership with iconic institutions
Adventures in Bookland