‘A WONDERFUL achievement’ – students at a Rugby secondary school have finished runners-up at a national awards ceremony for devising a ‘special’ crime-fighting project.
A team of students from Rugby High School (RHS) won the Silver medal in the National Crimebeat Awards 2026.
The student Team Leaders of the school’s entry, Project Prevent, won the medal after presenting their project to the audience at a ceremony at the Royal National Hotel in London.
Students Sarayu Kotha, Sera Deepak, Grace Rankin and Iris Parsons worked in partnership with High Sheriff of Warwickshire Karen Lynch MBE to create their project to address the crimes that concerned them the most – assault, grooming and harassment.
The students teamed up with Warwickshire Police, Safeline, Rugby Borough Council and local self-defence provider G-Force to develop the project.
The Project Prevent team were accompanied to the awards by the High Sheriff of Warwickshire Karen Lynch MBE, Warwickshire Crimebeat Chair Simon Miesegaes, RHS Chair of Governors Peter Reaney, RHS Deputy Headteacher Joanna Grimes, and Rugby Police’s Youth Engagement Team.
At the ceremony, the team delivered a professional presentation to a room full of over 150 people – impressing competition judges in the process.
Karen Lynch said: “Reaching a national final with a project of this calibre is an outstanding achievement.
“These young women have not only excelled on a national stage, but have delivered meaningful, preventative work across Rugby Borough to tackle assault, grooming and harassment.
“As High Sheriff, my role is rooted in supporting law and order, and crucially in preventing crime – and this is exactly what we are seeing here: intelligent, professional action that will help make communities safer.”
Simon Miesegaes DL, Chair of Warwickshire Crimebeat, said the Project Prevent team had proved that young people can help to make their communities safer.
He added: “We always knew Project Prevent and the team from Rugby High School had something special, but to come second behind Greater London in the National Crimebeat Finals is a simply wonderful achievement.”
RHS Headteacher Mark Grady said he was ‘tremendously proud’ of the students who contributed to and participated in the project.
He added: “It began over 18 months ago with workshops at the school, where over a hundred students contributed to initial planning phases.
“The four students that drove the project forward did so building on the efforts and ideas of their peers, and so this really is an award for the collaboration and insight of lots of our students. However, we could not be prouder of Iris, Grace, Sarayu and Sera.
“This project has had a transformational impact on our school, and local schools, and the fact that four students in our school will have impacted and supported over 4,500 students across Warwickshire by the time we have finished is really quite something. Resilience, tenacity and a passion to support our community has been the cornerstone of their work.
“We want our students to leave us knowing their actions have the potential to change the world. In this case, our students have proven it to themselves and the rest of our community already. What an achievement.”
The National Crimebeat Awards celebrates and rewards youth-led projects that seek to reduce the incidence of crime and support victims of crime in the communities across England and Wales.
