AN 'exceptional' teacher at Skipton Girls High School who set up the school's first ever robotics club and who takes her students to Legoland has won a national award for going the extra mile in inspiring young engineers of the future.

Rebecca Lofthouse has been awarded the ERA Foundation's David Clarke prize for 'outstanding secondary teacher in the field of engineering'. The prize celebrates teachers who have gone beyond what is required in the syllabus by inspiring students and showcasing 'real world engineering' in the classroom.

The school also receives £12,000 which will be used to support its‘Engineers of the Future’ programme to work on the Northern Star Academies Trust ‘Green Promise’, exploring engineering solutions for sustainability in schools.

Mrs Lofthouse, who qualified in 2015, took up her first placement at Skipton Girls as a computer science teacher, creating an annual engineering and computing enrichment programme, which included trips to Bletchley Park and Legoland, Alton Towers and The National Museum of Computing.

She went on to introduce the A level Computer Science course. There were just five A level students to start with, rising to 14 in the last two years.

Of the current A level students, 80 per cent have chosen to pursue computer science at university. Mrs Lofthouse, and the team, are passionate about addressing the shortage of women and women leaders in the sector nationally, something which the ERA Foundation praised her for.

In 2016, she established the SGHS Robotics club, and over the past five years, the school has won all rounds of the Lego League competition and qualified for the national finals. This year the club had a record 54 members.

As the school's learning director, Mrs Lofthouse and her team have launched the Engineers of the Future programme. It's aim is to build additions to the school that will reduce the carbon footprint. The first and current project, the 'Generate Gym' involves transforming a courtyard into an energy generating gym. Mrs Lofthouse is leading the students to innovate, build, fundraise and upcycle to achieve their vision.

She also runs sessions with primary schools to introduce robotics and coding and annually organises a Spectacular STEM Day, attended by around 400 pupils from around 40 primary schools.

Mrs Lofthouse said: “I am thrilled to have been awarded this prize, this was very much a team effort and we are excited to continue to support our amazing students in STEM careers and opportunities.”

Headteacher, Mark Turner, added: “We are delighted that Rebecca has been awarded the David Clark Prize for Secondary Engineering teaching. This reflects the incredible work she has done in engaging and developing our students' aspirations and access to high quality experiences both within and beyond the core curriculum.

"We are very thankful to the ERA for the work they do to encourage and support high quality teaching and career development in this vital area of importance to develop our engineers of the future.

"We are excited the prize will help further develop the exciting work our 'Engineers of the Future' programme which Rebecca is leading in the school.”