Dragons Den comes to Royston for school workshop

DRAGONS entered a Royston school this week to judge the area s brightest young business brains. Teams of Year 10 students at the Meridian School were challenged to come up with environmentally friendly business ideas for the Make your Mark Challenge eve

DRAGONS entered a Royston school this week to judge the area's brightest young business brains.

Teams of Year 10 students at the Meridian School were challenged to come up with environmentally friendly business ideas for the Make your Mark Challenge event organised by the Royston and district Chamber of Commerce, which is based on the popular television series Dragons Den.

Fulfilling the rolls of Duncan Ballantyne, Peter Jones, et al were a cross section of people from Royston business, including Johnson Matthey's John Gourd, town centre manager Geraint Burnell, and Stephen Larcombe from Limbach Banham solicitors.

Mr Larcombe, who is chairman of the Chamber of Commerce, said: "The event was part of the National Enterprise Day, and this sees school pupils up and down the country set a common task.

"This year it was to come up with a 'cool idea' which didn't cause any harm to the environment. We were very impressed by the imagination shown in the various projects."

After offering the children support while they came up with their designs, the "Dragons" retired to their "Den" to hear pitches from representatives of each team.

"It's a great exercise in giving young people experience of pitching and boosting their confidence," explained Mr Larcombe.

"There were some great ideas raised, from a go-karting track run on solar power to an integrated transport system running on bio-fuel.