A group of students from a special school in Plymouth have beaten off competition from all over the country to win a national enterprise award.
The team of eight 15 and 16 year olds from Cann Bridge School in Estover were the winners of the Key Stage Four category in the Tycoon competition run by the Peter Jones Foundation – and they were the only special school taking part.
Cann Bridge School supports young people aged from three to 19 who have complex learning difficulties.
The national competition was inspired by Peter Jones of Dragon’s Den and involved teams of budding entrepreneurs preparing a business plan, developing products and then marketing and selling them.
The talented team from Cann Bridge School received their award from Prince Andrew and Peter Jones at a glittering ceremony at Windsor Castle in September. The presentation was due to take place at Buckingham Palace in March – but the heavy snowfall at the time led to its postponement.
The Cann Bridge team’s journey to the title started in October last year when their class teacher Lee Fisher entered them in the competition. Teams were given eight weeks in which to produce products for sale and to record their profits.
The team developed ‘We Cann Do Gifts’ designing and making a wide range of festive products including cards using recycled Christmas stamps, personalised tree decorations, gift tags, accessible recipe cards for people with additional needs and wine glass holders which were sold to families and friends.
They received support for their enterprise from Plymstock Albion Oaks, Plymouth Ladies Charity Club and Barclays Plymouth, who helped promote the Christmas products within the wider community. In total the students raised over £2,000, all of which was put towards a new sensory room for the school.
Lee Fisher said: “We were thrilled when we heard in February this year, that our team had been selected for the final to be held at Buckingham Palace.
“Plymouth Ladies Charity Club, who are longstanding supporters of the school, kindly donated £500 towards the cost of transport to get the team to London, and everybody looked forward to the day with excitement. However March 1 was in the week of heavy snow and sadly the event had to be called off.”
The postponed final took place in September at Windsor Castle and members of the team travelled up from Devon by minibus.
“It was a fantastic day, crowning a fantastic achievement by the students,” said Lee. “The young people absolutely loved it and we are extremely proud of them all.”
It was the third time that a team from Cann Bridge have made the national finals. In 2014 their post 16 team were runners up in their category and in 2016 another group of 14 to 16 year olds were also runners up in their section.
This year they went one better and took the top title – edging out a team from Preston School in Yeovil in their category.
