Our Year 10 Enterprise group wrote a proposal for an entrepreneurial initiative to UK Steel. The Challenge was offering funding for young people who could come up with business ideas that would truly benefit young people.

In October 2015 the academy's Year 10 Enterprise group and their teacher wrote a proposal for an entrepreneurial initiative to UK Steel. The 40:40 Challenge from UK Steel was offering funding for young people who could come up with enterprising business ideas that would truly benefit young people. The group were successful in their bid and received £2,000 pounds in funding. Their proud teacher Mr Wilson-Stonestreet explains more;

"The Y10 group have worked incredibly hard to conceive and plan for a charity initiative that will raise funds for a Newcastle based charity called Coco. This charity currently works in East Africa and Ghana to help build schools and support the infrastructure of schools already running.

Year 10 Enterprise wanted to make a positive impact on the education, health and opportunities of the 30,000,000 children that don't go to school in Sub-Saharan Africa. They also wanted to make a positive contribution to the healthy food initiative with the academy, and with this in mind they purchased a commercial orange juicer and created the charity business: 'Juice Factory - Orange you glad you helped?'

On the 16th November, we were very fortunate to meet Coco's Tanzanian representation, Mr Oswin, who only travels to the UK only once a year. He came to the academy via his home village of Mpandangindo, just to share the stories of how Coco has helped children that he knows and to impart the message of why it is so valuable to continue to support Coco and help improve the lives and education of children that live in Tanzania."

The Year 10 Enterprise group have promoted their charity initiative in assemblies and have asked the whole academy to be a part of raising funds for Coco. As of the week beginning 23rd November they will be launching their business in the hope that they can inspire others to fund-raise, whilst raising as much money as they can to make a real difference to the lives of children that don't have the same opportunities in life.