Young web designers of the future had the opportunity to work on a real life project as part of their studies recently, as they were commissioned by a local company to create and launch a new website.

Following on from last year’s very successful project, Year 10 pupils from Portsmouth High School had the opportunity to create and design a website for Charlotte Newton, a local Personal Trainer, who devises and delivers exercise programmes for people from all walks of life.

The pupils worked in small groups to produce a fully functioning website and Charlotte chose her final website (www.charlotte-newton.co.uk) based on the combined ideas and work from two teams. Mia Large (14), Tanya Al-Biraqda (15) and Rachael Ammari (15) were involved in the design and the creation of the logo for the site, whilst Marina Granger-Brown (15), Sarah Northall (15) and Louise Valentine (15) devised the text and content for the site.  

Jonathan Smith, Head of ICT at the school said: “We have excellent facilities at the school which enable the girls to learn new skills quickly, therefore it is important that we allow them to progress and develop these skills by working on a real life project.”

“All of these pupils are currently study for the ICT GCSE Full Course, and working on this project has really helped. The girls learnt how the internet works and the steps involved in registering domain names and web hosting. The pupils also developed important communication skills and learnt how to follow a customer brief in a professional and creative way, whilst working to tight deadlines”

Charlotte Newton said; “All the girls were thrilled to be able to work on a real website, they delivered professional results which far exceeded my expectations. I am genuinely delighted with the creative efforts. It is great to see skills being taught in the school which can be directly applied to the modern day business world”

Mia Large, part of the winning team of pupils said: “Over the course of a few months we created the website following the brief we were given. We submitted our ideas to Charlotte and luckily she chose our logo and design to be incorporated into the winning site, which rewarded our months of hard work!”

The school will be running the competition for pupils again next year and are looking for other local companies who would like to embark on a similar venture. Those interested should contact the school on 023 9282 6714.