Institute of Acoustics Secondary School Competition 2022 Winner: St Oscar Romero Catholic School
The John Connell Awards 2022 took place at the Palace of Westminster on the evening of 19th October 2022, kindly hosted by Sir Peter Bottomley MP, Member of Parliament for Worthing West. The awards were presented by David Hill, Director General Environment, Rural & Marine, Defra.
Gloria Elliott OBE, NAS CEO said: “Congratulations to the winning team of pupils at St Oscar Romero Catholic School for their highly impressive submission which demonstrated real depth of investigation as well as practical problem solving skill and all beautifully produced”.
Alistair Somerville, President, Institute of Acoustics said: “The IOA Schools Competition is now an annual event which encourages young people to explore the wonderful world of acoustics! This year's winners demonstrated an innovative and thorough investigation into the sounds in their school. Then, focusing on the school bells, they developed sound recording technology from readily available and affordable resources, produced a sound heatmap of the noise impact and recommended mitigation measures.
The presentation of the findings of the project, using a website, was outstanding.” Peter Byrne, Headteacher, St Oscar Romero Catholic School said: “We are incredibly proud of what our students have achieved. The sheer complexity of the project and its real life application is both inspiring and important for our school’s development.” Peter Clarke, Head of Physics, St Oscar Romero Catholic School said: “This competition captured the imagination of the students, and really got them thinking about the measurement of sound. They mapped out sound levels across the school and used their findings to investigate a noise problem, suggesting possible solutions. A fantastic extra-curricular experience. I’m delighted that the students’ hard work over many weeks has been rewarded with this competition success.”
Contacts: St Oscar Romero Catholic School Peter Clarke Teacher pclarke
stromeros.co.uk (pclarke[at]stromeros[dot]co[dot]uk) Peter Byrne Head Teacher pbyrnestromeros.co.uk (pbyrne[at]stromeros[dot]co[dot]uk) Sponsor contact: Institute of Acoustics Alistair Somerville President alistair.somervillegmail.com (alistair[dot]somerville[at]gmail[dot]com)
The awards are named after NAS’s far-sighted founder John Connell OBE, who lobbied the Noise Abatement Act through Parliament in 1960 when noise became a statutory nuisance in the UK for the first time. These unique annual awards, known as the ‘Noise Oscars’, are now in their 20th year. They acknowledge the importance of the quality of sound in our lives, and champion vital advances in reducing the negative impact of unnecessary noise for the public benefit. Over 350 recipients from local authorities, industry, organisations and individuals have now been honoured for the significant impact they have made to improve the aural environment.
