On Friday 28^th January, St Mark’s West Essex Catholic School hosted an event to celebrate former pupil, Christina King, who has won the prestigious Women in Innovation Award from Innovate UK by unveiling a purple plaque in her honour on the school site.

The purple plaque is Innovate UK’s twist on the blue plaques seen in the UK. Purple plaques are being displayed at schools across the country to recognise the achievements of some of the female innovators who have won its prestigious Women in Innovation Award. The Award also sees recipients receive a cash injection of £50,000 and bespoke mentoring to scale up and bring to market their pioneering business ideas.

Currently, just 14% of blue plaques in the UK celebrate the achievements of women. This highlights a national issue of the under-representation of women in the media, the workplace and in the education system, resulting in a lack of relatable role models for children and young people.

Innovate UK hopes the plaque will inspire pupils at the school to follow in Christina’s footsteps.

Christina won the Women in Innovation Award this year with her commercial approach that aims to drive emissions reductions and energy savings through wider access to sensing technology developed at Tribosonics. Christina’s idea of revolutionising Sensing as a Service to create a more sustainable future for industry.

Christina is one of a network of 64 Women in Innovation Award winners who are developing pioneering innovations to tackle pressing societal, environmental, and economic challenges; from delivering precision medicine to underrepresented populations, to offering eco-friendly materials for the aerospace industry and creating cutting-edge digital educational tools.

Christina King said:

“I’m so excited to be recognised in this way. School played such a big part in setting me on my journey and I want to help the next generation realise their ambitions. It’s critical that young people have strong role models to follow and I’m humbled to be recognised in this way - I hope it helps other young people with dreams of starting their own business to have the confidence to give it a shot.”

Elaine Heaphy, Headteacher, said:

“We want our pupils to realise their potential. As they say, you can’t be what you can’t see – this plaque is a reminder to everyone here of what they can achieve if they set their mind to it. We’re delighted to recognise Christina’s achievements and are excited to follow what comes next”.