News Feature: Invention Convention

By Luna

Bolingbroke’s newest group of game changers, the year sevens, were eager to present their inventions at the school’s one and only Invention Convention on Wednesday 8th of December. The annual event has always been a success and this year many said it felt practically unbeatable due to the myriad of bright and original ideas. As per tradition, the event was held in the sports hall as it’s the perfect size to accommodate the vast number of individual and intelligent minds working away to achieve one of the many rewards offered.

We at The Bark had the opportunity to ask the organisers of this year’s Invention Convention, Mr. Oliver Armstrong and Mr. Oliver Matthews, what their experience was like.

Mr. Armstrong, who counted the votes and ran the event, stated that, “There were some impressive inventions all over the hall. Had some students been selling their invention, I definitely would have spent quite a bit of money on the day.”

I can personally say, as a visitor and reporter, that I too would have paid good money for some of those inventions! I especially loved the one-of-a-kind scented soaps, which inspired me to stop and smell a soap every now and then, as well as the multi-coloured lamp, which really did brighten my day by several shades! I also think in terms of pandemic adaption, the Covid kit was a fabulous design which keeps all your essentials during this unprecedented time in an efficient bag.

Mr. Armstrong was also keen to highlight an unsung hero: “Ms Robinson in the library.” He said, “She helped almost all the groups in the lunchtimes leading up to the convention, from helping with initial ideas to providing glue and sellotape for last minute fixes. She definitely saved the day for several inventions.”

I’m sure her hard work and efforts to make this the best year yet for the convention were appreciated greatly by all involved. As for the last question, on whether Covid inspired or hindered the inventions presented, Mr. Armstrong had a very interesting opinion here: “I was worried It may have meant students have had less practice at presenting but the year 7’s were great so I don’t think that was the case. I think, if anything, Covid inspired a lot of the inventions. Even in the ones which might have seemed to have nothing to do with Covid, I think the adaptability people have needed during Covid helped the students to develop their ideas.”

I think we can all agree that the Year Sevens found it in themselves to make the best of an unfortunate situation, finding a clear silver lining in what has been a difficult couple of years!

Mr. Matthews, who also helped in organising and overseeing the event, mentioned that, “All the inventions showed a great level of thought and creativity; I particularly enjoyed Justice and Philipp’s Pringle raising device. It was an easy fix to a small but annoying problem.”

I can absolutely agree there; if only their invention was for sale, I’m sure it would have been a sell out! The unsung hero of Mr. Matthews’ choice was Mr. Armstrong, “For all of his hard work organising the event for year 7.” And of course, “The operations team for setting up all the tables to allow year 7 to have stalls and make the event feel professional. The hard work of the year 7s in making their inventions also deserves a massive shout out!”

Once again, another shout out from The Bark team to the efforts put into such a variety of unique and ground-breaking ideas from the Year sevens.

Lastly, Mr. Matthews stated that he “saw many inventions which were looking to mitigate the risks of Covid as well as inventions looking to assist groups which may have been disproportionately impacted during the pandemic (e.g. Tairone’s clear mask for lip reading). It was great to see how year 7 were looking for real world practical solutions to problems which have affected so many over the past two years. They truly are the problem solvers, inventors, and scientists of our future. Well done to everyone who took part and came to visit.”

I doubt I am alone in acknowledging just how lucky we are as a school to have such bright minds working and improving our every day lives every minute, every second even of every day. Well done Year 7!