Stapleford School celebrate in Dragons' Den competition
16 March, 2009
The finals of Nottinghamshire County Council’s very own Dragons’ Den were held earlier this month which showcased the skills of more than 100 teenage entrepreneurs who came along to pitch their business ideas.
Pupils from George Spencer won second prize for ‘table tops’ an interactive learning table for children.
The exciting event was the culmination of some four months’ hard work for groups of 13-14 year-olds (Year 9) from 13 schools across the county who were assigned a project to develop a product or service befitting of the real-life Dragons’ Den.
Inspiring ideas
And with some inspiring ideas brought to the table, such as a pets’ activity centre from Foxwood Foundation School and Technology College (Bramcote), it was a tough decision for Nottinghamshire’s very own panel of dragons, which included paralympic gold medallist, Sam Hynd; charity entrepreneur, Gail Liley; and Managing Director of Nottingham Evening Post Business of the Year 2008, Caunton Engineering, Simon Bingham.
But after some tough deliberations, fellow dragon and Nottinghamshire County Council’s Corporate Director of Children and Young People’s Services, Anthony May, was able to share positive and constructive feedback from the panel about each of the schools’ ideas, before announcing the three schools who would receive prize money to either develop their idea further, or to use towards future enterprising activities.
The imaginative initiative, which also saw the groups taking part in creative workshops throughout the day including making their own promotional animation and a collaborative writing exercise, was organised as part of the County Council Economic Regeneration team’s efforts to nurture enterprise skills in youngsters - reflecting a national drive to unlock the entrepreneurial talents of the UK’s teenagers.
”A fantastic day”
Nottinghamshire County Council’s Cabinet Member for Culture and Regeneration, Councillor Steve Carroll, who was also one of the five dragons, said: “It was a fantastic day. What we wanted to do was help raise the aspirations of teenagers in Nottinghamshire’s schools, and we saw some top class business ideas from the youngsters.
“This all about celebrating our young people in Nottinghamshire and the kind of good work our schools are doing.”
By News Correspondent.
