12-year-old Shropshire pupil wins national engineering competition
by Educate Magazine June 12, 2026 · Secondary School News
A 12-year-old Shropshire pupil has won a national competition for his innovative idea of a phone charger that generates power through walking and staying active.
Freddie Davenport is a Lower School pupil at Ellesmere College. He had the winning idea for the West Midlands region in the “If You Were An Engineer” competition.
During the challenge, the year seven pupil from Wrexham was asked to identify a real-world problem and design an innovative product to solve it. Following this process, he was honoured for his winning idea with an award at Coventry University.
Jonathan Shaw, head of Ellesmere College, said:
“This engineering honour is a testament to Freddie’s creativity, hard work, and determination throughout the competition process.
“He proudly collected his award alongside other talented young engineers from across the region and we are incredibly proud of Freddie and all that he has accomplished.
“The competition encouraged creativity, problem-solving, and engineering skills, with students developing a wide range of impressive ideas. Freddie’s success is a wonderful example of the talent and innovation within our school, and we look forward to seeing what he achieves in the future.
“Congratulations, Freddie, on this fantastic achievement.”
The awards are organised by educational not-for-profit Primary Engineer. As part of the event, pupils were given a tour around Coventry University’s engineering facility. Patricia Ashman, associate head of School of Engineering at Coventry University, lead the tour.
The national STEM competition was hosted at the Engineering & Computing Building. It was open to children aged between three and 19-years-old.
Before reaching this stage, entries were graded by local industry professionals followed by a regional judging panel. At this point, the judges picked two winners and two highly commended for each year group.
For more information about Ellesmere College and the STEM subjects on offer there, visit: www.ellesmere.com.
