ENTERPRISING youngsters at a York primary school have reaped the rewards of a Dragon’s Den event.

As part of Enterprise Week at Park Grove School teachers wanted to inspire the children’s creativity as well as raising funds towards new ICT equipment.

Head teacher Jo Sawyer said: “As part of our drive for excellence we wanted to update the technology we use across the school, to include up-to-date laptops, iPADS and other resources. Obviously this will take time, but as part of our Enterprise Week we had a ‘Dragons’ Den- style activity where every class chose representatives to face the ‘Dragons’ with a fundraising idea.”

Classes then pitched their business ideas, mirroring the format of the TV programme. Each class had a £50 float to start their business. Business ideas included an ice-cream van, a garden party for parents and a photography company.

The two winning teams sold clay nameplates and ice creams.

Within a week the children raised £2,251.68 which was topped up with a generous contribution of £1,000 from the PTA, making a final figure of £3,251.68.

At the end of the week, the class that returned the most profit won back their original float of £50 to spend how they liked.

The money raised has been used to buy a new iPAD for every class in the school. Chairman of governors, David Hare, said: “These iPADS will be a fantastic resource for our children. We now need to keep fundraising so that we can eventually build up to a whole class set.”