The 2022 TVLP Dragons’ Den pitches took place at the TVLP Student Leadership Conference, held at St Joseph’s Catholic High School in September 2022.
The event brought together over 100 students from across 9 TVLP schools; Beechwood School, Eton College, Herschel Grammar School, Holyport College, Lynch Hill Enterprise Academy, Slough & Eton C of E Business & Enterprise College, St Joseph’s Catholic High School, The Windsor Boys’ School, and Windsor Girls’ School.
Students got into mixed school groups to plan their ideas, which aimed to help tackle at a local social, economic or environmental cause. Areas they chose to focus on varied and included food poverty, the environment and pot holes.
Our Dragons’ Den panel, which consisted of 5 business & charity leaders, chose 2 winning pitches. One addressed knife crime and one aimed to help a local homeless charity. Each of these were awarded £100 to put towards making their pitch a reality.
Windsor Homeless Project pitch.
Students from 3 local TVLP schools (Lynch Hill Enterprise Academy in Slough, The Windsor Boys’
School, and Eton College) won a Dragons’ Den pitch at the TVLP Student Leadership Conference to use £100 to donate items needed by the Windsor Homeless Project. On 2nd December 2022, they carried out this plan. Using a donation wish list, Sonny, Theo & Tanaya (pictured above with Chris Speakman, Windsor Homeless Project, and Clare Matheson, TVLP Coordinator) delivered food & drink to the Windsor Homeless Project & learnt more about the great work this local charity does.
With the weather getting colder, the demand for the charity’s services increases, with more people
seeking refuge from the bitter wind, rain, snow and ice. The students were told that donations of
essential items like tea, coffee and biscuits were regularly needed, with monetary donations to help with the rising cost of lighting and heating also welcome. Donations can be made to the Windsor Homeless Project via their website: www.windsorhomelessproject.org/donate
TVLP Coordinator, Clare Matheson said: “Raising awareness of the excellent work charities and non-profit organisations like the Windsor Homeless Project do in the local area is a great way of encouraging more students across local schools to get involved in these, either through donations of goods, services or their time, or through fundraising. It’s great to see students like Sonny, Tanaya and Theo leading on this and helping in this way.”
Anti-knife crime pitch.
Students from 2 TVLP schools in Slough, Beechwood School, and Herschel Grammar School, have been selling anti-knife crime badges to raise money for the youth charity, Together As One (Aik Saath). The students, Sam and Samir, along with pupils from another Windsor based school, won a Dragons’ Den pitch at a TVLP Student Leadership Conference earlier in the academic year to use £100 to create their own badges, which were designed with the help of local graphic design company, Dunk Design Ltd. They doubled the money they were given by asking students, staff, family and friends to make a voluntary donation for each badge they were given. In total, Sam and Samir raised £207.30.
TVLP Coordinator, Clare Matheson said: “Sam and Samir have done a great job raising much needed funds for Together As One, as well as showing their support for tackling knife crime in Slough and the neighbouring areas. The Dragons’ Den judges and I are impressed by how they have used their £100 prize money to double its value, thereby increasing the impact it can have.”
Rob Deeks, Together As One commented: “We are enormously grateful to all of the partners involved in this project and Thames Valley Learning Partnership in particular. Both the young people’s desire to help their community and their entrepreneurial spirit are to be highly commended – we hope they are really proud of themselves.”
Thanks to all our Dragons’ Den judges and partners, listed below in alphabetical order, for their support:
- Cindy Smulders, Trustee at the local charity, Swan Lifeline.
- David Barnes, Chief Instructor, Storm Family Martial Arts.
- Derrick Chong, Senior Lecturer in Marketing, Director of Undergraduate Studies, and Senior Tutor in the School of Management at Royal Holloway, University of London.
- Dina Kashap, Fashion designer and owner of a bridal boutique in Datchet.
- Dunk Design Ltd.
- Iro Konstantinou, Head of Research and Impact, The Tony Little Centre, Eton College.
- Together As One (Aik Saath).
- Windsor Homeless Project.