It was with trepidation and excitement that two of our young people arrived at Villa Park for the Regional Finals of the Coco Cola Enterprise Challenge.
The competition had been entered nationally by more than 1,000 teams and 43 schools in our region.
The young people were tasked with becoming an advertising agency and had the day to together a pitch to the judges to say how and why they should be awarded the job of promoting the Special Olympics which are taking part in Sheffield in August.
Alongside a Coco Cola Mentor they had to work to tight deadlines to design a local charity event to raise awareness of the games and work out a budget and predict profit for this event.
Our young people were required to put together a PowerPoint presentation and script, perform and edit a radio advertisement. A poster to advertise the Games was also needed.
Their hard work was evident as they took to the stage to present their pitch to the judges, who included the Head of OCR, a Coco Cola executive, a Special Olympic gold medallist and his mum.
In a room full of more than 100 people, the young people overcame their nerves and did an excellent job to explain their ideas and their very professional radio advert.
At feedback, the team was praised by the judges, especially for the poster and radio advertisement. They especially liked the use of the tagline “seeingisbelieving”. The judges felt that our young people ought to be awarded 4 times the points as every other team had 4 times the number of members and it was recognised that a team of two was facing a very difficult challenge.
Although they did not win the £1,000 prize, the young people had achieved remarkable things. They were both fantastic ambassadors for the school and several teachers from other schools came to say how impressed they were.
We all are so very impressed and incredibly proud! Well done girls!