Lyndhurst First School in Worthing has won five years free internet connectivity worth £12,500 thanks to student Sydney Huntingford.
Sydney, aged 6, came top in a competition run by Exa Education, one the UK’s leading providers of internet services to schools, colleges and universities. In Sussex, Surrey and Hampshire, Exa works in partnership with Sompting-based JSPC Computer Services to deliver ICT support to over 150 schools.
Sydney, who’s in Year 2 and one of the youngest entrants to the competition, has also won himself the new PlayStation 4.
Exa Networks, which looks after the internet services for thousands of schools throughout the UK, ran the competition as part of its 10th anniversary celebrations. The five years free internet connectivity prize also includes Exa’s SurfProtect which filters out unsuitable content to make web-searching safer for children.
Mark Cowgill, Co-founder and Director of Exa Networks, said: “We wanted to get as many of our customers involved in our celebrations as possible and a competition that students could enter, win themselves a great prize and benefit their school too seemed like a great idea.
“Sydney’s design was outstanding and he is a well-deserved winner. Judging the competition was much harder than we anticipated as the standard was very high. Students from across the country sent us such as range of entries about different topics using a variety of formats, from power point presentation to hand drawn pictures”.
The competition was open to any child, aged between 5 and 18, currently in full-time education at a school or college in the UK. To enter, pupils had to create a story, picture, PowerPoint, video or cartoon about either of the following: “What I think about the internet” or “The world in the next ten years”. Or pupils could submit an entry about a topic of their own choice which could tie into a school project. Sydney’s entry was a drawing entitled “Why my family loves the internet”.
Diane South, Head teacher of Lyndhurst Primary said: “Very well done to Sydney and his brilliant drawing. We are absolutely delighted and so very proud of him. Internet connectivity is vital to any school so to have this prize means we can free up funds and provide other facilities and equipment for the school.”
James Stoner, Managing Director of JSPC Computer Services, which has have worked with Exa Networks to provide ICT support to Lyndhurst School for the last five years, said: “We are delighted for Sydney and for all the staff and students at Lyndhurst First School. They have always been very proactive and forward thinking with the ICT they provide and this prize will help ensure they continue delivering the same level of excellence to their students.”