Littlehampton whizz-kids prove ‘apps’ the way to do it

Internet savvy students from The Littlehampton Academy have been hailed as the champions of the Clear Computing Ltd Schools’ Challenge for the second year running, picking up their trophy last week.

The contest featured 14 teams from five schools across the county and aimed to get the 56 youngsters to design a new app and social media platform.

And with cyber bullying and online ‘trolling’ proving hot topics during this month’s national Internet Safety Day, contestants were tasked with ensuring their designs were both imaginative and safe.

Barry Hall, managing director of Rustington-based Clear Computing Ltd, said he was impressed with all the students’ efforts.

He said: “It was extremely hard to judge and I think for young people to be pitching in front of a room of businesspeople, they did really well – better than some businesspeople who are seasoned professionals, which was quite surprising.”

The academy had two teams make the final three, with the group behind Whambazo proving the victors for their forum-based revision app for schoolchildren.

As well as coming up with the idea during the contest, held at Worthing College earlier this month, the students also decided how it would work, be financed, marketed and how they could make it safe.

Rob Josephs, co-ordinator of student participation and leadership at the academy, said he was proud of both the school’s squads. Both teams demonstrated a clear vision and direction for their ideas and worked really effectively as a team,” he said. “This is the second year in a row that we have got both teams into the final three and to win the competition again is fantastic and shows what amazing students we have here at TLA. As always, the students were a credit to themselves, their parents and the academy.”