Ipswich School Wins Major PrintIT! Prize

Edited by the Printingtalk editorial team Apr 13, 2006

Students from Northgate High School in Ipswich (UK) won the category of best overall winner of PrintIT! 2006, at the PrintIT! inaugural awards ceremony.

Students from Northgate High School in Ipswich (UK) won the category of best overall winner of PrintIT! 2006, at the PrintIT! inaugural awards ceremony.

Rosie Whinney, Laura Prime and Keiran Peck from Northgate High School and their design and technology teacher, Michael Gaffney, were presented with the top prize of an expenses-paid trip to the Windward Islands, courtesy of PrintIT!.

Barbara Crowther, head of communications at The Fairtrade Foundation and Martyn Elmy, chairman of PrintIT made the presentation.

The winning students in each of the 13 different award categories were presented with individual prizes, whilst their schools received print-related prizes worth up to GBP5,000 each.

The ceremony, which took place at Ipex 2006, saw the culmination of the first ever UK industry-wide educational initiative to address the need to attract young people in to the printing industry.

Nearly 23,000 students from 540 schools across the UK took part in PrintIT!, which was curriculum-mapped to the GCSE graphic products course.

Martyn Elmy, chairman of PrintIT!, said: "This event is the culmination of many months of hard work and commitment, not just from the PrintIT! team but from all of the key partners, sponsors and supporters from all corners of the industry that have made PrintIT! happen." He added: "Ipex 2006 provided the perfect platform to showcase the diversity of our industry and demonstrate the many exciting career opportunities available to the students that have joined us here today.

It has also given us the occasion to acknowledge the excellent work of the finalists' entries.

I hope that one day, we will see some of these students working alongside us in the industry and provide us with the vibrant, young workforce that will take UK printing forward for the future." PrintIT! was created and led by Ipex owner Picon, which worked in collaboration with the Specialist School and Academies Trust (SSAT), and the Fairtrade Foundation.

Also collaborating were the British Association for Print and Communication (BAPC), the British Printing Industries federation (BPIF), Ipex 2006, Robert Horne Group, The Stationer's Company Educational Charity and Wyndeham Press Group.