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Overall winner of toy design competition announced
Posted 30/06/15
"Go! George the giggling Giraffe" was yesterday (Tuesday 30 June) announced as the overall winning entry in a national toy design competition at the Chartered Trading Standards Institute's Conference in Bournemouth.
The brainchild of Sophie Lazenby, 14, impressed the judges of the annual Playsafe competition with its clever creativity and safety features, beating off competition from more than 250 entries from across the UK.
The design by the pupil from The Hayfield School in Doncaster was chosen as the overall winner after coming top in the 12-17 age category, taking home £100 herself and £1,000 for her school.
CTSI's chief executive Leon Livermore said: “Every year I enjoy seeing the fantastic fruits of children's imagination as they dream up a toy for Playsafe – I'm so impressed with the creativity that we see and the level of attention to detail.
"This competition is a great way to engage children and young people in a fun way while making them aware of what to look out for in terms of safety and we are grateful for the support we have received from the British Toy and Hobby Association (BTHA) for more than 20 years in making this competition happen.”
BTHA's Director of Communications Natasha Crookes said: "There were some amazingly creative entries this year and the judging panel had a hard time picking out the winners from a very strong field. We all thought the ideas were some of the most imaginative, and importantly fun, ideas for toys we had seen for a while.
"The overall winner "Go! George the Giggling Giraffe" won the overall vote for the amazing research and artwork of the entry. We could imagine this toy on the toy shelves this Christmas."
Jack Williams', 14, toy "Ultra Tech Ted" was awarded first place in the special needs school category for its originality and creative design and Lewis Davies, 14, received the highly recommended prize by judges for his toy design "Flying Zebra", both winners are from Laleham Gap School.
- Winner of the 6-11 category: "Dr Ellie" by Jessica Walker-Selfe, 11, and Georgia Wright, 10 from Minster C of E Primary School.
- Runner up of the 6-11 category: "Sea Shore Manner" by Bethany Newton, 11, from Painters Ash Primary, Northfleet Kent.
- Highly commended for both categories: "Trampoline Bubble Machine" by Katie Wise, 9, from Painters Ash Primary, Northfleet Kent.
- Winner of 12-17 category and overall winner: "Go! George the giggling Giraffe" by Sophie Lazenby, 14, from The Hayfield School, Doncaster.
- Runner up of 12-17 category: "Spaceman Simon" by James Hall, 15, from Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School, Kent.
- Special needs schools category: 1st place awarded to "Ultra Tech Ted 2020" by Jack Williams, 14, from Laleham Gap School.
- Special needs schools category: Highly commended awarded "Flying Zebra" by Lewis Davies, 14 from Laleham Gap School.
