A COLLEGE student has won a national competition for her essay on creativity in science.

First year at Barton Peveril Sixth Form College, Lucy Kelly has won the Oxford Scientist Schools Competition which is led by the University of Oxford.

The competition, which runs once a term, challenges pupils in years 10, 11, 12 and 13 to write a 700 word essay in response to the question “How is creativity important in science?”

Lucy Kelly was the winner of the Year 12 and 13 category for her essay and will now have her work published on the University’s website as well as being invited to attend a virtual celebratory event, hosted on Zoom, with the other category’s winner and the judges.

Lucy said she was “thrilled” to win the competition.

She added: “It was a really encouraging and motivating surprise in my first week back after such a long time in lockdown!

“I heard about the competition through the Barton Peveril Aspire Programme, and decided to enter it as I found the question thought provoking and felt that I would enjoy exploring the ideas that came from the question further.

“My article compared the processes of creativity within the arts, with the processes involved within scientific innovation.”

After college, Lucy, who previously attended Swanmore College, hoped to study psychology at university and possibly go on to work in clinical psychology.

The competition receives a large number of entries from pupils each year, and speaking on Lucy’s work the organisers said: “We thoroughly enjoyed reading Lucy’s excellent submission.

“The Unappreciated Creativity within Science. This passed with flying colours in each of the 5 rounds of assessment and was favoured by the Oxford University Professor judges.”