The FameLab Academy final took place on Wednesday this week after school in the Pavilion, with nine Year 9 students making it through the first round in the tutor groups before Christmas. The winner goes forward to the Gloucestershire final on 29 April, which takes place by Zoom. Last year a Year 8 audience watched but couldn’t this time due to the need to keep bubbles separate, but there were several teachers and the other finalists watching and it was all filmed so Year 8 will be able to watch later.

The Year 9 students each prepared a three-minute talk on a STEM topic and were then grilled by the judges. There were some fantastic presentations, which the students had spent a great deal of time and effort planning, and the judges had real difficulty choosing a winner. The results are:

First place:

Connor May, ‘Why do we dream?’

Joint runners up:

Sid Venkatanarayanan, ‘Why does your tongue hurt when you bite it accidently but not purposefully?’

Ollie Johnston, ‘Non-Newtonian fluids’

Other students who took part:

Hugh Edney ‘Dyson spheres’

Lucas Reiner, ‘How do animals keep their teeth clean?’

Theo Howard, ‘What Is love?’

Tom Meredith, ‘Why is the sky black at night?’

Ben Slade, ‘Is reality real?’

Sam Woodward, ‘What are white holes?’