PUPIL Emma Doudican has made her mark on history at a Darlington school by winning a competition to design a medal for an annual sports presentation ceremony.

The competition at Longfield Academy attracted a record 300 entries, which were narrowed down to a shortlist of 15, before Head of School Nick Lindsay selected a final four to be turned into prototypes.

Emma’s design was chosen as the winner and she has now had the honour of casting her design in pewter. More medals embossed with her design will be produced for the school sports presentation evening in front of an audience of around 200 pupils, family and friends on July 19.

Mark Kirkbride, Head of Art, Computing and Technology at Longfield Academy, said: “The competition has been running in design and technology since 2013 and it’s a real opportunity for pupils to make their mark on a little bit of school history.

“The medals will be kept by the sports winners for years to come so it’s a real honour to produce the chosen design. This year’s standard was really high, with more entries than ever, but Emma’s design is a worthy winner.”

Emma, 13, said: “The competition was good fun and I’m really proud that my design was chosen as the winner.”

Meanwhile, Longfield Academy pupils are hoping to repeat last year’s success in Greenpower, an international competition aimed at inspiring more young people to become engineers.

The aim is for teams of students to build and race their own electric-powered cars, and Darlington-based engineering company, Cummins, has been supporting Longfield students by sending a representative to the school on a regularly basis.

Longfield won last year’s regional final at Croft Circuit and has three teams – including an all-girls’ team – competing in this year’s final on June 26.

The winners go on to take part in the national final at Rockingham Motor Speedway circuit in Northhamptonshire.

Mr Kirkbride said: “We are really pushing engineering at Longfield and it is going from strength to strength.”