PRIMARY schools around Carlisle and Penrith are among the winners of special category prizes in the Bright Stars 2022 competition.

The competition challenged pupils to turn tycoons and partner with local businesses to create their own social enterprises to ‘make a profit and make a difference’.

More than 50 schools were each given £50 seed funding to begin their business and over 1,000 children took part in the competition organised by the Centre for Leadership Performance.

Each school was allocated a local business partner to help them set up them along their way. They spent eight weeks working on their projects and the winners would then receive £100 prize.

Stanwix School in Carlisle partnering Online Systems won ‘Most profitable social enterprise’ with 'Stanwix Healthy Minds'.

They organised a comprehensive calendar of events to raise awareness and money used to create an outdoor area of wellbeing. 

Brampton Primary School partnered with Oak Tree Animals' Charity to win ‘Best example of community engagement’ with their 'Bees Knees' business. The mini entrepreneurs set out to educate others on how important bees are and sell products that help the bee population.

Culgaith C of E Primary School in Penrith and Diff-Ability CIC won the prize for ‘Best demonstration of being great communicators’. The budding social entrepreneurs created 'Run for Fun, Bake for Cake' – an initiative all about finding solutions to the lack of opportunities for social gatherings in the Culgaith community.

Morland C of E Primary School in Penrith partnered with North Lakes Hotel to scoop the prize for the ‘Best marketing idea’. This ambitious team of Bright Stars created a 'one night only' Morland Royal Hotel at the school. 

Claire Johnson, primary programme manager at the Centre for Leadership Performance explained: “With more than 50 schools and over 1000 children taking part, the standards were so high it made choosing the winners a tough challenge for the judges. In fact every school taking part in Bright Stars is a winner."

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