Huge congratulations to our Year 9 Business Studies students, who have been awarded an incredible £500 from Centre for Leadership Performance Leading Change campaign, for their inspiring, forward-thinking projects.
Their mission: to bring positive change to our school, and wider community — all linked to the United Nations’ 17 Sustainability Goals.
As part of the initiative, students confidently pitched their ideas to an industry panel and answered a range of challenging questions. The judges were so impressed with the students’ creativity, passion and professionalism that they awarded two teams instead of one, £250 each to help develop their brilliant ideas further between now and January.
Our students have been supported each week by Year 12 Business Studies mentor Zac Kirby as well as Ashleigh and Stuart from Bendalls Engineering, whose guidance has been invaluable.
Josh, James and Matthew’s project focuses on turning recycled wastepaper into sustainable paper logs to sell within the community — reducing landfill and supporting local households.
Panel Comments: “Confident presentation, clear vision, straight to the point, good to have identified an issue and turn it into a positive solution, very clearly presented.”
Kate, Daisy, Millie, Lottie and Lilly are designing a vibrant living wall to promote biodiversity, improve air quality and enhance our environment.
Panel Comments: “Great presentation and slides, really good idea to include names in the introduction so the audience knew who you are, and it worked really well using questions in the slides, great project to get people involved across the school.”
Other brilliant ideas include:
- Reusing plastic bottles to create bird feeders
- Transforming bottle lids into a colourful school mural
- Shredding leftover paper for animal bedding
- Collecting crisp packets to be turned into insulating blankets for the homeless
The groups are now in the implementation stage and over the coming weeks, information will be shared about collection points for plastic bottles, paper and crisp packets — helping the whole school get involved in these sustainability efforts.
At the end of January, students will attend a celebration showcase event, where their hard work and achievements will be recognised in style. We are very proud of all the students involved and their innovation, teamwork and dedication to sustainability.
