ON FRIDAY, St Mark’s West Essex Catholic School celebrated the work of 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.

Christina delivered an inspirational speech to senior girls at the school.

The essence of Christina’s speech was about confidence and self belief (film of the speech is below).

She took them on a journey from coming to St Mark’s in 1987, struggling (but succeeding) to get the grades for her GCSE’s, getting to university and then blazing a trail in her area of expertise.

But all along the way, Christina was telling the St Mark’s girls “you can do this!”.

A twist on the blue plaque we’re all familiar with, Innovate UK is introducing purple plaques to recognise the achievements of some of the female innovators it supports 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, who studied Mechanical Engineering at Brunel University and achieved an MBA from Leeds University, shared her journey and success with St Mark’s pupils to help inspire future entrepreneurs and STEM professionals.

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.