Three teenagers from Sandwich, whose idea for dealing with flooding in the town won a national award, have been given royal treatment at Buckingham Palace.

The Sandwich Technology School pupils met with The Duke of York, who presented them with certificates, £1,000 for the school and prizes from sponsors including laptops, at the TeenTech awards ceremony.

Joe Griffith, 13, Lauren Kemp, 12, and Kaitlin Hopper, 12, won the Environment Category for their flood defence design.

TeenTech awards encourages students to undertake scientific and technological projects in order to come up with solutions to real-life problems faced by industries.

Speaking at the prizegiving on Monday last week, Prince Andrew said: “Young people should recognise that science and technology are the basis of how we are going to be prosperous in the future.

“We have to create an enterprising culture where education is conducted in a culture of enterprise, where young people are encouraged to understand they can rather than they can’t. I believe TeenTech has the ability to inspire kids to do things they wouldn’t otherwise aspire to do.

“There’s a real need for teamwork, leadership and adaptability to be taught – we need this to be part of the culture in schools.”

The Sandwich pupils came up with a design for automatic flood guards in the door frames of new houses.

The idea came after the tidal surge that flooded homes in Sandwich last year, when sandbags were distributed to try to protect houses.

The trio decided guards could be controlled electronically and triggered by the breaking of river banks, or via an app on smartphones.

Students from all over the country, aged between 11-16, worked in groups of three on problems in 15 categories.

TeenTech was launched by broadcaster Maggie Philbin and has seen support from judges including Stephen Fry and James May.

Next year will also see three new categories added to the line-up.

For more information visit the website at http://www.teentech.com/awards.