Closing the end of last term, we were overwhelmed by the standard of our Year 9 (D) Dragons’ Den finalists.
Our Dragons this year included: Mrs Thornton, Mrs Marsden, Mrs de Mowbray, Mrs Dales, Designer and Entrepreneur Oliver Blackwell and last year’s winner Oz G.
We heard very professional pitches from:
• Hattie C and her ‘sustainable hair scrunchy’ concept
• Rollo M and Asaka H with their ‘fruit protection’ proposal
• Annabel K and Georgia K with their product that works towards ‘preventing food wastage’
• Tom D and Albert C with their innovative ‘buoyancy Jacket’ idea
• Io T and Cecily C’s very clever ‘water bottle cooling and alert system’.
Congratulations to the final three pitches:
Third place: Olivia PT’s ‘medication alert and dispensing system for Alzheimer sufferers’.
Second place: Natty S’ Chill Lid – a fan ventilated cricket helmet to keep batters cool in hot conditions.
First place: Amara G and Isla S with their ‘best before alerting concept’ to inform and alert consumers when their food is on the cusp of going off.
Oliver Blackwell who lectures in Design at Exeter University, on the judging panel, commented: “I was amazed by the level of innovation that I saw and the quality of the design proposals from such young pupils.”
Mr Mills, Head of Design and Technology, commented: “There was a very high standard achieved this year in the Dragons’ Den project. We opened the door to AI and asked our pupils to use it responsibly, to further explore their ideas and refine their design work. Once again we were delighted to host a major Entrepreneurial, Innovation and Employability event for the D year – their presentations were excellent. Thank you to all who were involved, especially well done to our winners and our wonderful team of Dragons.”
