St Sampson's wins first prize

Tuesday 02 June 2020

A team from St Sampson's High School won the first prize in the Guernsey heat of the Channel Islands Student Business Challenge.

Sea Lead - along with The Gardening Gang from Victoria College in Jersey - won the Overall Awards in this year’s challenge in recognition of their highly successful businesses.

Sea Lead sold dog leads made from old fire hoses and the offcuts of airplane seatbelt webbing, while the Gardening Gang sold “sow and grow” kits and herb gardens. The awards were announced at a virtual awards ceremony live streamed on Thursday 21 May as the students are still being homeschooled due to the lockdown.

Further awards were presented in both islands with Attic Addicts from The Guernsey Grammar School winning the Community Award in Guernsey for their home accessories and gifts made from upcycled products.

For the first time this year Product Awards were given to teams with unique and imaginative products with the Guernsey award going to La Mare de Carteret’s Teeny Tiny Toys for their decorated peg dolls.

Additionally, a prize was given to a winning team at each school who, in the judges’ opinion, demonstrated effective teamwork, excelled at marketing and showed a good understanding of how to make their business profitable.  

The Channel Islands Student Business Challenge involved teams of students from schools in Guernsey and Jersey working with mentors from the sponsors - Barclays, EY, and CPA Global - to create and run a business from January to March. A total of eighty teams took part in this year’s Challenge from six schools in Jersey plus three schools in Guernsey.   

Each team was given a loan of £100 to start their business. The eighty teams collectively generated revenues of over £30,000 and will donate in the region of £5,000 of their profits to charities including local charities such as the GSPCA, JSPCA, Durrell, Les Bourgs and Jersey Hospice.

Kirsty Mackay, Associate Partner at EY said “Despite the changes brought about by CoVid-19 we felt it was important to recognise the exceptional hard work of the teams that took part in the Challenge this year. We had to cut the Challenge short by a few weeks and have adapted our approach with our judging performed remotely and our awards being announced at a live streamed event.

“The teams made impressive profits in a very short space of time. It is inspiring to see the generosity of their charitable donations and to see them actively engaging with their chosen charities whilst still learning key employability skills. These awards are testament to the teams’ hard work in creating viable businesses and we are extremely proud of their achievements.”  

Liz Coffey, Executive Headteacher in Guernsey said “We are so proud of our students who have successfully created innovative businesses. They have learned a huge amount in the process and we have seen them grow in confidence throughout the Challenge.”  

The 2020 winnings teams in Guernsey were:

Overall Winner               Sea Lead from St Sampson’s High School

Overall Community        Attic Addicts from Guernsey Grammar

Product Award                Teeny Tiny Toys from La Mare de Carteret           

School Awards: 

La Mare de Carteret:      Teeny Tiny Toys

Guernsey Grammar:       Artisan Ceramics

St Sampson’s:                  Sea Lead