The winning Bishop Wordsworth's pupils Picture: Salisbury Rotary Club

Brainy Bishop Wordsworth students blast off to victory at Rotary tech tournament

Tait ap EllisAugust 5, 20250 Comment0

BRAINIACS at a Salisbury school reached for the stars to win a competition that imitated a space launch.

Three teams of four pupils at Bishop Wordsworth School spent a day at the Rotary Avon Valley Technology Tournament, organised by Salisbury and Fordingbridge Rotary Clubs.

The competition saw them design and build a launcher to fire a ‘space capsule’- a golf air ball placed in a paper cup – as 10 teams faced off against each other at Sandleheath Scout hut near Fordingbridge.

Using only the materials and tools supplied, they had to build the launcher on a baseboard and design and build a trigger mechanism to release the launcher from a distance of one metre.

The space capsule had to go up through a 300mm diameter hoop fixed one metre above the launch pad.

It then had to continue rising until it reached three metres above the launch pad – which was deemed to be the stratosphere.

Finally, the capsule had to return to earth by parachute, landing as close to the launch pad as possible.

In addition to the actual construction and firing of the launcher, the teams had to produce a portfolio showing their planning and working sketches and their reasons for choosing their final design.

A Rotary spokesperson said: “One of the teams from Bishop Wordsworth’s (BWS) was one of the few teams to achieve all the requirements and launch their space capsule at least three metres into the air and land it by parachute on the launch pad, thereby winning the overall competition.

“One of the other teams from BWS won the other prize for core values – respect and politeness shown to fellow team members, to other teams, and to the judges and other adults present. Congratulations to those two teams.

“The day was intended to be challenging and fun. The feedback forms from the students showed that they enjoyed the challenge, they thought it was a fun day, and they would like to take part in a similar event next year.”