STUDENTS from Bordon’s Mill Chase Academy scooped first prize in this year’s Above and Beyond competition for gifted pupils.

The theme this year was 2016: A Pivotal Year in History, and year-10 pupils from Mill Chase Academy, Alton’s Eggar’s School, The Petersfield School, Farnham’s Weydon School and Alresford’s Perins School worked in teams to prepare a project and give a presentation based their investigations.

The competition is based on Alton College’s extended-project qualification, taken alongside other courses, which is said to be highly valued by universities as it develops critical thinking, research, planning and reflection. The competition brief allowed for a wide range of topics to be covered.

The winning team from Bordon’s Mill Chase Academy discussed prejudice in 2016, covering the incidents of hate crime after Brexit, Islamophobia and the media portrayal of these events. They discussed gender, religious and racial equality and how 2016 was of particular note in all those areas.

Perins chose to discuss the impact of David Bowie and Prince and how they made people start to question social convention on gender identity.

The Petersfield School discussed the impact of terrorism and related media coverage, and about Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump.

Weydon School chose to talk about climate change.

Eggar’s School chose to investigate the US election and Mr Trump, with particular reference to climate change and immigration.

Judge Peter Cox, director of learning at Alton College, congratulated all the participants, explaining how impressive all the different presentations were and how difficult the decision had been.