Donhead Wins Prestigious 2026 David Clark Prize

Olivia Rodrigues of Donhead Preparatory School has won the 2026 David Clark Prize, awarded by the ERA Foundation for inspiring young people through engineering and technology.
The award brings £12,000 to Donhead to further develop its STEM and engineering provision.


Olivia has transformed the way pupils aged 3–11 engage with technology, encouraging them to create, design and build rather than simply consume technology. From coding and robotics to stop-motion animation and interactive projects, pupils are encouraged to prototype, test, refine and learn from failure.

The impact is already being recognised, with 28% of Year 6 pupils placing in the top 10% nationally in the Bebras Challenge, while Donhead teams finished 1st, 3rd and 4th out of 78 UK teams in the Primary Coding League. All Donhead teachers now hold Microsoft Educator accreditation, and the school is a Microsoft Elevate

Through partnerships with organisations including Ottobock, Johnson & Johnson Innovation and The Co-op, pupils tackle real-world engineering challenges, while Donhead also contributes to educational research with the University of Cambridge and Raspberry Pi Computing Education Research Centre.

October 2026