Ellesmere Port school's Life on Mars project wins top award

Year 7 and 8 students at Ellesmere Port Catholic High School worked hard on the 'Life on Mars' project, which saw pupils get astronomically creative, including the creation of a stop-motion animation, a virtual reality world and well-researched concepts of how humans could get to, and live on, the Red Planet.

Ellesmere Port Catholic High students' award-winning Life on Mars project. Part of a stop-motion animation depicting the launch from Earth and landing and exploring Mars.

The extensive work, done as a joint venture between the school and careers education charity 4wardfutures, was even more impressive as it was carried out during the 15th week of the first coronavirus lockdown, long after most students had stopped attending lessons in person.

The moment the award was announced

Despite this, students were able to support each other virtually from their homes on their various projects thanks to help from the school.

Their efforts, which even attracted the attention of the European Space Agency asking to see what had been produced, has won the school a WOW Recognition Award at this year's Educate Awards, held live on YouTube and presented by Simon 'Rossie' Ross last Friday (January 29).

Ellesmere Port Catholic High students' award-winning Life on Mars project. A Year 7 pupil's painting showing the first landing by humans on Mars.

Shocked and delighted Ellesmere Port Catholic High assistant headteacher Michael Hughes, appearing on Zoom to accept the award, said: "I'm absolutely made up, just speechless, I can't actually believe this!

"This is the first time we have been shortlisted, so to come away with an award is amazing."

Mr Hughes told The Standard how the award-winning project was first launched.

He said: "The Life on Mars project came about following an email exchange between Mark Water from 4WardFutures and myself. It was originally designed and run as a one-day activity in school but when lockdown started in March, the team at 4WardFutures decided that they would go virtual.

"This is where we got involved and supported the development of the program, sharing ideas, and making suggestion which resulted in a great collaboration.

Ellesmere Port Catholic High students' award-winning Life on Mars project. Year 8 students produced work showing the challenges of going to and living on Mars, and how to overcome them.

"A thank you must also go to Mr Tony Hickman, our STEM Lead in school, who was actively engaged in running the project remotely.

"In school, outside of the webinars which were scheduled, the Personal Development Team engaged with students, supporting their idea and discussions. This resulted in some students working collaboratively and remotely with fellow classmates from their homes during the lockdown.

"This was a special project; I can remember we even opened one of our major webinars up to the whole school and had 200 students listen in to a guest panel including NASA-funded scientists and those from the European Space Agency.

"What was amazing was watching the students support each other through all of this, always positive. Using our 'Teams' platform it gave students that chance to interact and they did this with real energy and excitement."

Ellesmere Port Catholic High students' award-winning Life on Mars project. Year 8 students produced work showing the challenges of going to and living on Mars, and how to overcome them.

Mr Hughes added he wished to thank the team at 4wardfutures, all of the Personal Development Team at Ellesmere Port Catholic High, all the form tutors, headteacher Caroline Vile, the IT team – without which the project could not have come together – and all the students who produced work that was "absolutely magnificent", and to Educate Awards, for showing everyone what everyone in education had achieved during lockdowns.

Kim O’Brien, founder of the Educate Awards, said: “A huge congratulations to Ellesmere Port Catholic High School for winning this highly coveted award! I would also like to say a big well done to the runners-up, those who were shortlisted and everyone who took the time to enter last year. You should all be very proud of yourselves!

Ellesmere Port Catholic High students' award-winning Life on Mars project. This was a Year 7 pupil's virtual reality world showing what life on mars would be like.

“It has been really tough for those working in schools and we are so pleased that we have managed to find a way to shine a spotlight on the hard work and dedication that goes on inside and outside of school. We hope this has given a much-needed lift to those in education, given the incredibly challenging times we are going through at the moment.”