An Ashford schoolgirl is doing her best to disprove the idea that you can’t excel at both the arts and the sciences.

Emily Elbourne of Homewood School and Sixth Form Centre has used a combination of engineering and artistic skills in a project registered for school science competition the Bright Spark Awards.

The awards encourage teams of pupils to use cross-curricular skills in Stem (science, technical, engineering and maths) subjects.

And in her Recycle and Create Studios project, Emily has used recyclable metals to make a collection of fun and imaginative sculptures.

She said: “What inspired me to get involved in metal fabrication is my granddad.

“He used to teach the Royal Engineers how to weld and use fabrication in their work. So, once he retired, I decided to ask him if he could teach me.”

Emily said she had learned a lot about metal-safety issues and had ambitious plans to continue with her new interest.

She added: “I plan to create a website named Sparks, and that website will be where I take people’s ideas and create them into sculptures out of recycled metal.”

Schools have until noon on Friday June 14 to register details of projects for the Bright Spark Awards., which are open to primary and secondary schools across Kent and the south-east.

Shortlisted teams will present their work at the Dragons’ Den-style awards ceremony at the Sandwich premises of Bright Spark judge Discovery Park.

And the prizes include £500 for the overall winners, as well as money-can’t-buy experience days with leading Stem businesses.

Besides Discovery Park, the other Bright Spark judges are BAE Systems, Atkins Global, Megger, the ITL Group, EduKit, Highways England, Pfizer, Kent Renewable Energy and Golding Vision.

To register projects and find out more about the competition, visit kmcharityteam.co.uk/brightspark.

And watch a video about Emily’s project here: