On Monday 30th June, we joined other secondary schools from across Northamptonshire at the Castle Theatre in Wellingborough for the grand final. This year’s challenge was to design a social enterprise that would help reduce the appeal of vaping amongst young people and non-smokers.

Our team, comprising three Year 9 students - Florence, Isabelle and Florence - produced an anti-vaping board game called Vape Escape. The game is aimed at KS3 students (10-14 year-olds), and is to be used in schools during life skills lessons/tutor time to inform students about the dangers of vaping. Similar to Trivial Pursuit, where you roll a dice to move around the board, there are several types of spaces to land on, each linked to cards and tasks that build knowledge and skills around vaping awareness. Our team created prototypes of the board, some counters, and an instruction manual. The game included many features to raise awareness of the criminal risks associated with vaping, including content about resisting peer pressure, understanding supply chains, and using facts from local authorities and public health services. Overall, the game is designed to support informed decision-making and empower young people.

The Dragons (judges) were very impressed by our team's creative and thoughtful approach, and we were absolutely delighted to be announced as this year’s winners. Along with the winning trophy and certificates, we received prize money to help our team to produce the game to be launched next academic year 2025-2026.

Everyone at Guilsborough would like to say a huge thank you to everyone who supported our team, and to all the other schools who took part and shared their fantastic ideas. A special thanks to Colleen Robinson, from Northamptonshire Children's Trust and Henny Cameron, Volunteer from the Prevention and Community Protection Department at Northamptonshire Police.

We are incredibly proud of Florence, Isabelle and Florence for their phenomenal teamwork, innovation, and determination to make a difference on such an important issue. They have shown what makes Guilsborough Academy such a special community and we couldn't be prouder of their achievement!

Read more about the Northamptonshire County Schools Challenge.

See more images from the evening in our school gallery.