Unfortunately, due to Covid, the final had to be cancelled and the challenge continued virtually. The team were not demoralised and made them more determined to win the event.

They all excelled at working remotely on their pitch, constantly in communication and working as a team in some very challenging circumstances. Also, some excellent editing skills and their final pitch was submitted. The teams’ approach to this really does show their perseverance and resilience. We then had a nervous long wait to find out the results.  

In June I was very pleased to receive an email announcing that HGSS had won the National Skills Challenge, the judges at the Digital Institute London were really impressed and their feedback included:

• Excellent campaign, loved that they conducted some primary research and used the results to influence their campaign and create an accurate customer profile.
• Great Campaign branding with the phoenix logo.
• Could tell a lot of hard work went into the final pitch with all the extra supporting documents including the breakdown of the budget.
• Loved that they actually got some of the merchandise created with the campaign branding.
• I was impressed with them taking steps to address the issues of discrimination in football by adding a female player to the cover of the game  
• The refer a friend scheme with a discount is a really great idea and shows real understanding of the target audience
• Good creativity shown with the 4 way split screen and original song for their advert.
• They really did look like they were enjoying the experience
• The cardboard card out with hashtag #FMVICTORYFACE would make an extremely effective viral campaign

Gracie Brodie (Team Captain) said: " As a team we are thrilled and beyond amazed at wining this competition. Literal blood, sweat and tears went into this presentation for months, so we are so proud of ourselves!"

The school were very pleased to be able to present their trophies earlier this term and they will be going to the Digital Institute London to collect their prize at some point next year.   Well done to Gracie Brodie, Cara Duggan, Jack Eaton, Evie Swatton and Hannah Taylor.