PRIORY Community School Academy in Weston-super-Mare hosted a Dragon's Den-style competition for 68 students as part of their Enterprise and Marketing Course.

The event was judged by local ‘dragons’ over several days including top entrepreneur Andrew Scott, founder of the top UK firm the Ascot Group - who trains up entrepreneurs across the globe.

Mr Scott has been helping coach students at the school since 2011 and recruits students for his fast-expanding firm.

In the latest Dragon’s Den event, students created business proposals for new backpack designs and pitched their ideas to the judges.

Several students stood out:

  • Wahed impressed with his promotional materials, particularly his roll banner.
  • Cody delivered a professional pitch that impressed the volunteers.
  • Abi created a strong brand personality with an effective logo design.
  • Grace, Harry, Callum, and Liam's presentation led to an offer of work experience.

The school is historically well connected with entrepreneurs with Andrew Scott helping out since 2011.

Also back in 2013 the school was praised by Sir Richard Branson and Deborah Meaden after becoming the first school in Weston-super-Mare in Ofsted’s history to receive an Outstanding rating.

Sir Richard also did a video message from New York for the then 1300 students praising them for the innovation and different thinking in the creation of the ground-breaking Sir Richard Branson Centre at the school.

As a result of the latest Dragon’s Den competition, five students were offered paid work experience placements.

Mr. Scott, founder of the Ascot Group, gave all 68 contestants a calendar.

Mr Scott said: “It was a tremendous pleasure to help to judge this event.

“They all did a brilliant job and there was some outstanding future talent on show.

“We are always looking to recruit the best talent to our firm and look forward to meeting many of these students again in the years to come.”

Joe Brand, head of business, said: “The students were fantastic and learned so many skills during the project, including teamwork, marketing, leadership, problem-solving, numerical work, meeting deadlines, and communication.”

The event aimed to identify promising young entrepreneurs in the style of well-known business figures like Deborah Meaden, Lord Alan Sugar, and Jeff Bezos.

Priory was the first school to sow the seeds of the global Jill Dando News project, training up real-life journalists aged 8 to 18 in memory of Jill Dando. Its patrons include Nigel Dando, Emma Britton, Mr Speaker and Nick Ross.