NCL School's Prize Brief

Following the success of last year’s 10th Anniversary Prize, New College Lanarkshire is making the NCL School's Prize an annual event to showcase the creativity, ideas and commitment to sustainability within our communities and beyond.

This year, as part of our 160th Anniversary celebrations for our Coatbridge Campus, we’re once again partnering with Cumbernauld-based space rocket company Skyrora to challenge Lanarkshire’s brightest young minds to help tackle the climate crisis and solve environmental challenges.

The New College Lanarkshire Schools Award will be open to all North Lanarkshire School pupils in the Broad General Education of secondary school (S1-3) and will ask them to develop a special project on the themes of sustainability, environment and climate change.

There will be two categories: STEM and the Arts, and the winners in each category will take home £500 and get a chance to tour Skyrora’s state-of-the-art Cumbernauld centre.

Pupils in S1-3 across North Lanarkshire will be asked to develop a solution to a climate-based problem in Lanarkshire or create a piece of art which brings attention to an aspect of the crisis. The entries can take many forms, and there is more information on this below.

The competition will culminate in a celebration event where those who make the shortlist for the prize will be able to exhibit their entry before the winners in each category are announced.

The Competition

Pupils will be asked to respond to a brief related to the climate crisis, and entries will align with either STEM or the Arts.

Responses to the brief in both categories can take a variety of forms, for example, submission for the STEM prize could be a new invention or community service, while Arts submissions could range from poetry to art installations.

Submission can be from individuals, or from groups of pupils, with a maximum number of 6 per group.

The final date for submitting prize entries is Friday, 6th June 2025. Following this, a panel, including representatives from Skyrora, New College Lanarkshire and North Lanarkshire Council, will convene to shortlist 6 entries from each category as contenders for the final award.

Following from this, the college will then host a celebration event in our Coatbridge campus, where shortlisted entries will be displayed and/or demonstrated in the atrium of the conference centre before the winners are announced in the auditorium. There will be two levels of prizes for each category: overall winner and one highly commended.

Timeline

December 2024 launch prize
4th April 2025: Deadline for registrations
6th June 2025: Deadline for submissions
10th June 2025: Judging panel
17th June 2025: Celebration event and winners announced

In 2024, the Scottish Government published its Climate change: Scottish National Adaptation Plan 2024 – 2029. This plan outlines the actions which the Scottish Government will take with its partners to mitigate against the damaging effects of climate change.

As part of this document, the Scottish Government identified 5 outcomes to reach the goals set out in their Action Plan.

These outcomes are:

Nature connects across land, coast, and sea.
Communities are climate friendly, healthy, and fair.
Public services are working together to adapt.
Businesses and industries are making changes to manage the impacts of climate change. They are exploring new opportunities
Scotland supports global action on climate adaptation.

An easy-read version of the Action Plan is available in the Scottish National Adaptation Plan 2024-2029 Easy Read.

Consider the 5 outcomes in the Scottish Government’s Action Plan.

How could you, or you and a group of peers, use your knowledge of Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths to address the challenges of one of the outcomes above?

Could you:

Create a new process for your local community that helps reduce greenhouse gases?
Invent a new device that North Lanarkshire could gift to international communities most impacted by climate change?
Design a new process of product to help preserve and/or stimulate biodiversity?

These are only suggestions and entrants are free to explore a whole range of different ways to respond to this brief in line with the national STEM agenda.

Consider the 5 outcomes in the Scottish Government’s Action Plan.

How could you, or you and a group of peers, use your creativity to raise awareness of one, or more, of the outcomes above?

Could you:

Create a new piece of art from discarded household waste as a way of showing how material can be repurposed to reduce greenhouse gases?
Write a play to raise awareness of what’s happening in other countries most impacted by climate change?
Design an item that could create profit to contribute the Climate Justice Fund?

These are only suggestions and entrants are free to explore a whole range of different ways to respond creatively to this brief.

For anyone entering the competition, either individually or in a group, please register your interest by Friday, 4th April 2025, using our competition registration form.

Entrants will be asked to provide a contact email address that will be used for all further correspondence following from this date.

Once registration closes, entrants will be invited on to a Teams page where they will be able to upload their submission by the deadline date of Friday 6th June 2025.

The team at New College Lanarkshire will support entrants throughout the process, and any queries or requests should be sent to nclschoolsprize@nclan.ac.uk.