Towering ideas as Southsea school pupils take on challenge

Children from St John’s College Junior School in Southsea were visited by the Unloc Enterprise Academy.

The academy is a programme to enable young people to develop skills through setting up and testing their own businesses, working with more than 5,000 people each year.

They were tasked with the challenge of planning, designing, marketing and pitching the idea of a sister tower to the Spinnaker Tower.

The students received an interactive masterclass on subjects such as branding and marketing, before heading off into teams and going head to head to boast their creative talents.

The winning team received the prize of an exclusive VIP tour of the Spinnaker Tower.

Headteacher at St John’s College Junior School Tony Shrubshall said: ‘The pupils thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to work together on a really challenging project.

‘The determination to be the winning team was very evident throughout, however a spirit of collaboration and teamwork shone through and the boys and girls had a lot of fun.

‘The winning design was innovative and imaginative.’

Tony Sammut, general manager of the Spinnaker Tower, said: ‘The Spinnaker Tower is proud to support Unloc’s valuable work with young people in Portsmouth and beyond.

‘It is wonderful that our iconic building can be used as the focus for these workshops, to inspire creativity and develop skills within our local community.’

Managing director of Unloc Enterprise Academy Hayden Taylor said: ‘It is great to be working with St John’s College Junior School as they strive to build innovation and entrepreneurship into the school curriculum in a fun and challenging way.

‘We look forward to engaging lots of students and I can’t wait to see what sort of creative and enterprising ideas they come up with.

‘The enterprise days we deliver give students the freedom to be as creative as possible and the results are always inspiring.’