Dragons come to Danetre School

The event, based on the hit BBC TV show -Dragons’ Den, was organised for Danetre School by Northamptonshire Education and Work Service (NEWS) together with the Arson Task Force.Over 200 Year 8 students were split into teams of about 5 and were mentored by their teachers and the ’Friendly Dragons’ who assisted them in developing an idea in the morning.The best 8 ideas, voted for by the students themselves, werethen pitched to the panel of ‘Dragons’ in the afternoon.

Each team had a maximum of 4 minutes to pitch their idea to the ‘Dragons’.Prizes were awarded for Best Presentation, Best Innovation and Overall Winner and were presented to the students during an assembly on Monday 18^th July.

The ‘Dragons’ were volunteers from a variety of local companies and along with Simon Welch from Die-Pat included Jane Quarmby, Manager of Wroxton Business Centre in Braunston; Claire Smith of the Daventry & South Northants Community Safety Partnership; Wayne Green of Daventry & District Housing; Rob Moore of Lovell and Helen Davis, General Manager of Catering Design Group.

Die-Pat’s Managing Director, Simon Welch, commenting on the event said:

“I’m delighted to be involved in this event.I think it’s really important that we as a local business offer local students the benefit of our experience and support young people with opportunities to learn about business.”

Jane Trevellick, Alternative Curriculum Manager, Danetre School said:

“The students and teachers at Danetre are all very excited about this event.This is a fantastic opportunity for our Year 8 students to work with professionals and get hands-on experience of developing a concept and taking it to market.This really takes classroom learning and puts it into a real life context”

Mike Hales, Northamptonshire Education and Work Service (NEWS) said:

“This is part of a whole range of activities offered to Northamptonshire schools by NEWS which is part of Connexions Northamptonshire.We have already run Business Dragons’ Events in other parts of the county based around wheely bin fires and anti-social behaviour as well as the more traditional innovative thinking associated with Dragons’ Den.These have all been very successful.”