LOVE LOCAL
Cambridge students lead engineering event Forward-thinking students from Abbey College Cambridge recently organised and delivered a dynamic engineering conference, welcoming students from schools across the region. Students from The Leys School, St Bede’s and Landmark International School joined Abbey College Cambridge participants from year 7 at the Homerton Gardens-based school, forming a cohort of budding young engineers exploring a theme of ‘Engineering the Impossible’. Following a keynote on radars, electronics and robotics by Dr Sujit Bhattacharya, students worked in pairs to design, code and build robotic creations, transforming theoretical concepts into hands-on innovation. Then came an “Engagement was high throughout and it was rewarding to see the teamwork, curiosity and collaboration shared across all schools,” said Abbey College Cambridge principal Dr Elena Hesse. engineering challenge to design, construct and launch rockets.
BELLWAY SUPPORTS ELY FOODBANK Bellway has recently donated £1,500 and delivered food to Ely Foodbank, which provides emergency food and care parcels to families and individuals in Cambridgeshire. Staff at the housebuilder’s Eastern Counties divisional head office in Cambourne donated items into a collection box, while the financial donation was made to support the charity’s Heat a Home This Winter project as part of its Winter Hardship Fund. Members of staff from the developer visited Ely Foodbank – which is based at the Methodist Church in Chapel Street, Ely – to hand over the donation box and meet the charity workers. Over the past year, Ely Foodbank, which is part of the Trussell Trust, has supported more than 9,000 people in crisis, including 3,500 children. This has included providing emergency food parcels, household essentials and pet supplies in east Cambridgeshire and Fenland. It has distribution centres in Ely, Chatteris, March, Soham, Waterbeach, Cottenham, Haddenham and Burwell.
CALLING ALL CAMBRIDGESHIRE ATHLETES! Talented athletes in Cambridgeshire are being invited to apply for support from the GLL Sport Foundation (GSF) independent athlete support programme. The GSF Awards 2026 offer financial bursaries alongside access to local Better leisure facilities, as well as physiotherapy, lifestyle mentoring and mental health and wellbeing support, to help manage the costs of training and competition. Last year, 29 Cambridgeshire athletes benefited from a GSF Award, including 12-year-old ice skater Caterina Morena Nus (pictured). Speaking about the impact of the award, Caterina said: “Winning a GLL Sport Foundation Award has helped my parents with the cost of my training and motivated me to work even harder at my sport. I increased my training sessions and achieved a top eight place at the 2025 British Ice Dance Championships in the Juvenile category, also becoming a member of the GB Pre- Novice Development Squad.”
LOCAL PUPILS RANK HIGH IN COMPUTING CHALLENGE A total of 13 students from St Mary’s Junior School in Cambridge have achieved the joint highest scores in their age groups across the entire UK in the Bebras Computational Thinking Challenge 2025, after competing against more than half a million students from schools nationwide. The annual challenge, run by The Raspberry Pi Foundation, tests computational thinking skills including algorithm design, pattern recognition and logic. Across the junior school, 39 girls achieved Gold Awards, placing them in the top 10% nationally. Two of the students taking part even achieved perfect scores of 100%!
Celebrating its 18th year, the 2026 GLL Sport Foundation Awards are set to be bigger than ever, with a record- breaking £2 million of bursaries and ‘in kind’ support available to talented young athletes across the UK. Applications close 20 February; visit gllsportfoundation.org to find out more.
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