A team of students from Ballakermeen High School have clinched the top prize at this year’s One World Charity Challenge.

The scheme, which is aimed at year 12 students (aged 16 and 17), aims to engage young people in learning about international development through charity work and has been running for the last 18 years.

Working in small teams, students develop their learning over the course of six months and are tasked with producing a lively multimedia presentation about their chosen charity and the impact that it has on other people’s lives.

The final’s of this year’s event were held at the Mountain View Innovation Centre in Ramsey, with presentations being performed in front of an invited audience which included the Lieutenant Governor Sir John Lorimer and Lady Lorimer, the Education Minister Daphne Caine, other members of Tynwald, teachers and families.

The overall winners in 2025 hailed from Ballakermeen High School, representing ‘Gumboots Foundation UK’ - a charity set up to address poverty and AIDS-related issues in townships and rural areas of South Africa.

This team consisted of five girls - Holly Corris, Ella Winstanley, Lucinda Musson, Lucy Cartwright and Lily Hampton.

Their presentation saw them collect the top prize of £1,500 for their charity as well as the Frances Davidson cup, with this being the fourth year in a row that teams from Ballakermeen have taken the top spot.

Second place went to a team from St Ninian’s High School representing ‘Street Child’, a charity that works across the world to ensure children are safe in school, while third place was claimed by King William’s College representing ‘Livingstone Trust Tanzania’.

The remaining two finalists were teams from QEII High School representing ‘Action Village India’ and Castle Rushen High School representing ‘Seed Madagascar’.

They both won £750 for their charities, with the team from Castle Rushen also picking up the £1,000 AFD Award for Advocacy for their work in raising awareness of Seed Madagascar in the local community.

Judges on the evening included Lady Lorimer, Ramsey Grammar School headteacher Sonia Taylor, Phil Craine from the One World Centre and Jasmine Cowin, a former Charity Challenge contestant now working for Isle of Man Government.

Speaking about the event, One World Centre coordinator Wendy Shimmin said: ‘As always, the students provided us with a very entertaining evening and much to think about as they explained the work and impact of their chosen charities.

‘This year saw a record number of 35 teams taking part in the challenge so it was already a real achievement for these five teams to get through to the final stage.

‘One World Charity Challenge is one of our flagship projects, and this programme introduces young people to the world of international development and humanitarian aid at a time when they are thinking about their own future choices in life.

‘It also offers lots of opportunity to practise key skills such as research, teamwork, organisation, presentation and time-management.’