TWO former pupils of Minehead Middle School went to Buckingham Palace last week to collect an award for their innovation.

Callum Turner and Oliver Shaddick, both now 14, designed a skateboard with a built-in speaker and LED lights to solve the problem of not being seen or heard at night.

And it won its category in the TeenTech competition, which the boys entered last year while in year eight at Minehead Middle.

Founded by radio and TV presenter Maggie Philbin and her business partner Chris Dodson, TeenTech is an award-winning, industry-led initiative created to “help young people understand the real opportunities in contemporary industry” and inspire them to be the innovators of tomorrow.

The awards focus on children coming up with unique solutions to the problems people face every day in the world.

Callum and Oliver spent months perfecting their project and were in London for the finals in June, winning their category after competing with thousands of schools across the country.

It has ignited a passion for engineering and they now hope to continue to use this experience in their GCSEs and into their future careers.