DRAGONS' DEN 2022 CHALLENGE WITH MILE CROSS PRIMARY RETURNS FOR THE FOURTH YEAR!
October 11, 2022
Last week saw the return of our annual Dragons’ Den challenge with Mile Cross Primary School. The event, which started in 2018, links up Year 5 pupils from Mile Cross with Norwich School’s Lower Sixth Business Enterprise A Level pupils through a series of workshops. Pupil teams work together with their mentors to develop a business idea and create a product and business plan to pitch to real life business “Dragons” from Norfolk’s business community.
During the initial workshop, pupils learnt about business operations, marketing and finance, coming up with some very inventive products such as a glow-in-the-dark ball which won’t get lost and a self-powered suitcase.
The initiative was born from a link through the Norwich Opportunity Area, whose objective was to raise aspirations for young children through exposure to careers outside school. The project has been particularly successful as it gives both the year 5 pupils an opportunity to take the curriculum further by learning in a “real world” setting, and Norwich School’s pupils have a chance to develop their mentoring and teaching skills.
Lower 6 business pupil, Finn, said:
“The best thing about working with the Mile Cross children was seeing them start to understand and succeed and believe in themselves.”
Another Norwich School pupil, Maddy, remarked:
"the children in my group felt comfortable asking me business related questions from the moment I sat down on their table. They were all confident and their ideas were very convincing and creative”.
The Year 5 pupils will now return to their school to work on their business plans and devise a pitch to deliver to the business Dragons in early November. We look forward to hearing about their inventions!

