A nine-year-old boy from Jarrow has won an award for designing a sign language translator.

Joel Hunt, a Year 4 pupil at St Mary’s Catholic Primary School, which is part of Bishop Chadwick Catholic Education Trust, entered the competition as part of the school’s MADD STEM week.

The competition is run by educational not-for-profit organisation, Primary Engineer, where they were asked to answer the question: ‘If you were an engineer, what would you do?’ Pupils were tasked with interviewing an engineer before being asked to identify a problem in the world around them. Then they drew and annotated a solution with an accompanying letter explaining why an engineer should choose to build it.

Thousands of children entered across the North-east and over 70,000 children entered across the UK. His work was exhibited in The Hope Street Xchange, Sunderland, where he was invited with his parents to view the exhibition and he then attended an awards ceremony alongside other pupils from schools across the Northeast.

Joel, who won the competition for his age group for his sign language translator, said: “I was happy that I won the competition and the awards ceremony was fun. We got to see all the winning and highly commended designs.

“I am proud of my design and how it could help people with translating sign language."

Head of school Jennifer Colley said: “Joel has worked extremely hard to design his sign language translator and what a brilliant idea!

“The competition is a fantastic way for children to use their imagination, and Joel has shown a deep sense of empathy and a commitment to making communication more accessible for others.

“Joel is a true credit to our school community, and we are very proud of what he has achieved.”

For more information about St Mary’s Catholic Primary School, visit www.stmarysjarrow.co.uk

For more information about BCCET, visit www.bccet.org.uk