Award winning Heysham High students present green ideas in Parliament
2 December, 2008
Connor Gallagher catches a photograph with opposition leader David Cameron.
Last month, a group of 10 lucky students from Heysham High School received a tour of Parliament and were given a chance to present their green business plan for recycling electronic equipment to local Morecambe MP Geraldine Smith.
The invite to Parliament came after the students won a business enterprise competition run by the school with local business ShP for Enterprise—a leading provider of social enterprise days for education.
They enjoyed a guided tour of The House of Lords and the House of Commons and observed the two minutes’ silence for Armistice Day in the Palace itself.
Pupil Connor Gallagher managed to catch a couple of famous faces for a chat and a photograph while down there. “I recognised David Cameron going for a coffee in Euston Station so I shouted hello to him and he came over and we got a picture,” explains Connor. “Then, while we were eating lunch in the House of Commons, David Dimbleby sat at the next table so I showed him the photo of Mr Cameron and he readily agreed to pose.”
Winning their enterprise day wasn’t easy. The students completed a series of activities throughout the course of ShP enterprise day to develop a business plan including finance resourcing and marketing strategy for their green recycling idea. The day then came to a climax where the group of students survived a Dragon’s Den style drilling from a board of professional actors posing as business entrepreneurs during a presentation of their business plan.
The lucky group were selected as the winners of the school enterprise day after the panel of actors agreed that their business proposal was the most thorough and well presented idea with the aim of increasing recovery and recycling rates.
David Hopkinson, Assistant Headteacher at Heysham High School said, “It was a tough day for all the students, some of the ideas were very innovative, but the excellent prize made all the work worthwhile.”
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