Enterprising students take up the Network Challenge

Teams from King Alfred's School in Wantage, Didcot Girls School, Finchley Catholic Boys School, Forest Gate School,  Brentford School for Girls, Longford Community College, Hounslow, Newstead Wood School for Girls and Langley Park School for Boys, Bromley will visit London's City Hall to take part in Thames Water's award-winning Network Challenge engineering competition, which will see them design, build and test a scaled-down water distribution network. The Year 10 students qualified for the final by winning local heats across London and the Thames Valley.

Sarah Harris, Education Coordinator at Thames Water, said:

"The Network Challenge is a great opportunity for young people to find out about the real challenges of providing water - particularly in busy cities like London.

"All the competitors will be faced with the sort of issues real water companies have to contend with, such as preserving the environment, planning restrictions and disruption to traffic.

"In planning and constructing their network of pipes, managing budgets and staying within the time allowed the students get a real flavour of business and enterprise!"

The Network Challenge is Thames Water's flagship education programme, aimed at engaging young people in the issues and challenges of building a water supply network. Teams build a water supply network using a specially commissioned set of materials on a board illustrating a typical community. Thames Water employees lead the event and each team is assigned a facilitator to guide them through the challenge.