Homeless sleep pods idea scoops award for pupils

A team of Bradford schoolgirls have scooped a national award for a plan to create sleeping pods for homeless people to use.

The Bradford Girls' Grammar School group were named among the five winners of a schools competition called Big Ideas, with the pupils competing against 470 teams from across the UK.

The team said their pods would be a safe space for the homeless, offering shelter as well as mental health support and skills training to help them gain confidence and boost employability.

After building a model of a pod and coming up with a marketing strategy, the pupils now hope to build a prototype of their design.

Ellenor Griffin, a social media marketing expert from Northern Gas Networks, worked with the girls on their project and called it a "great idea".

“They are very passionate about it and how it affects their local area and I knew it would get them far, it's such a big achievement for them," she said.

"I hope they press ahead with it."

Northern Gas Networks said it would offer further assistance to help them to develop the idea further.

The competition was organised by the Solutions for the Planet project and saw pupils aged between 11 and 14 putting forward ideas to find a solution to a sustainability issue that mattered to them.

Jen Baughan, Solutions for the Planet chief executive officer, said the competition overall had “shone a light on how young people can address society’s biggest challenges”.

"Given the freedom and creativity to think outside the box, they could find the solutions we need to save the planet," she said.

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