OTTERHAM Primary School is amongst three Cornish schools that have won awards at ThinkBIG, a Dragon’s Den style contest for primary school children, held by the Cornwall Association of Primary Heads (CAPH).

Pupils from a shortlist of six schools pitched their projects to a judging panel at Aerohub, Newquay Airport, and were challenged to come up with innovative ideas on how they would spend £500 to improve one aspect of school life.

The overall winner, Otterham Primary School, was awarded £500 to build a market stall, which the children will use all year-round for various activities, including selling school-grown produce and fundraising events for charity.

The judges particularly liked the way the children used strong, business-minded arguments to explain how they would involve all the pupils and their local community in the project.

Meanwhile, Carbeile Junior School in Torpoint and Sennen Primary School were also awarded £250 to turn their innovative projects into reality.

Carbeile Junior School will put their money towards a ‘reading caterpillar’ in the school library, to make reading fun by creating a comfortable and exciting environment; whilst Sennen Primary School plans to buy ukeleles to replace their current rented instruments.

The panel of judges included Mel Colton-Dyer, head of business connections and skills at Cornwall Chamber of Commerce; Rob Tempest, sales director at H Tempest Ltd; Miles Carden, enterprise zone manager at Aerohub, Newquay Airport; and Ian McWalter, bids manager at Michelmores.

Katie Chandler, business manager at CAPH, said: “We’re delighted with the response the ThinkBIG challenge continues to generate. This year, we received over 30 initial entries. It’s fantastic to see such creativity and flair from the children and to share in their enthusiasm to improve life at their schools. Well done to all the shortlisted schools, and to each of the three winners — very well deserved.”

Ian McWalter said: “Many congratulations to Otterham, Carbeile and Sennen on their ThinkBIG awards. The pitches from all the shortlisted schools were outstanding and it was a tough task for the judges to select the winners!”

Antony Power, partner and head of education at Michelmores, presented a cheque for £500 to Otterham school at a ceremony on June 19.