• Thu. Mar 28th, 2024

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Gateshead school children come top of the class in Newcastle building society boardroom charity challenge

BCC Winners 2016 with AH JJ DBChildren from a Gateshead school will be taking to the catwalk after coming top of the class in Newcastle Building Society’s fifth Boardroom Charity Challenge.
The Year Five pupils from Lingey House Primary School beat rivals from seven other schools across the North East in the annual event, which asks its young participants to develop business ideas that focus on benefiting their local community while also making a profit.
Each school presented their ideas to a panel of senior business figures in Newcastle Building Society’s boardroom, with the Lingey House team’s plan to stage a Funky Fashion Show winning them £1,000 first prize offered by the Newcastle to help them put their plans into action.
The Lingey House children will use the prize money to buy plain tee shirts and canvas bags, which they will sell to their schoolmates to decorate and personalise as they wish.
Their creations will then be revealed at a fashion show that the school is hoping to stage in the autumn in the nearby Gateshead College Theatre, with all the money raised going to the Marie Curie Hospice in Newcastle.
The team from Valley Gardens Middle School in Whitley Bay finished in the runners-up spot.
The Boardroom Charity Challenge is an ongoing financial education programme developed by the building society which aims to help young people learn about becoming more financially independent.
It forms part of a six-week long curriculum based learning package that teaches core numeracy and literacy skills, and has so far helped more than 2,000 children in schools right across the North East learn more about how to manage money and develop their IT and presentation skills.
The Boardroom Charity Challenge is an extension of the Society’s wider financial education commitment, which sees it providing free seminars to Society members who want to learn more about how to manage their money. It also complements the direct support given to organisations and good causes in the communities in which branches are located.
Deputy head teacher Joanne Jackson, who led the Lingey House Primary School team, says: “The children have worked incredibly hard on this project, giving up so many of their breaks and lunchtimes to work on making their presentation the best it could be, and to see all this hard work recognised like this is just brilliant.
“We didn’t think we were going to win, so when our name was read out, everyone was jumping and running around with excitement, and it’s wonderful for everyone involved that we’re going to get to put on our funky fashion show.
“We had a fantastic day at the finals, and being part of the Boardroom Charity Challenge is something I’d highly recommend to every other school out there.”
Andrew Haigh, chief executive at Newcastle Building Society, said: “As a mutual organisation, financial education has been a key focus for us for many years, and the standard of the entries we get for the Boardroom Charity Challenge just keeps getting higher and higher.
“The thought, care and creativity that all the children had put into their ideas and how they presented them was quite amazing, and it made the judges’ decision extremely hard to reach.
“The Lingey House team’s ideas really caught everyone’s imagination, and we hope they’re as successful in raising money for the Marie Curie Hospice as our previous winners have been for their respective causes.
“Our Boardroom Charity Challenge gives us a wonderful opportunity every year to share our expertise in this area with hundreds of children across the North East. We hope the experience is one they will benefit from and will create a great foundation for looking after their money that bit more smartly in the future.”

By admin