High Street Challenge
As part of Telford’s 50th birthday celebrations, Telford and Wrekin Council offered students the opportunity to redesign a High Street in Telford and Wellington Market. Our students eagerly accepted the challenge and have been working extremely hard with Mrs. Glover and Mr. Whitaker to develop their wonderful ideas to renovate Wellington’s High Street and Market.
Both teams consisted of KS3 students, who have all been very passionate and committed towards the project. The High Street group thrived in constructing their idea of bringing an American Diner to the streets of Wellington: ‘Dig-In-Diner’. The group promised that the diner would be ‘full to the brim’ with tasty ‘locally sourced’ treats, and would organize many charity events to assemble the local community. Group Two focused on bringing something new to Wellington Market in order to attract a wider demographic, their idea was a Pop-Up Cinema within the grounds of Wellington Market called Film Fest. The students decided that their Cinema would exhibit a wide range of films from Hollywood classics to contemporary blockbusters, appealing to an audience of all ages and attracting many local families to visit the Market. Additionally, Group Two expressed an interest in creating a ‘community tree’ formed from the handprints of the local Wellington Primary School students.
The students from both groups were invited to deliver their pitch in front of the prestigious panel of judges in a ‘Dragons’ Den’ style competition which was held at the Telford International Centre on the 21st June 2018. The students spent the morning exhibiting their amazing stands and sharing the details of their wonderful ideas to the judges and council representatives. Following a delicious lunch the events host, magician Ben Hanlin (ITV2 Show ‘Tricked’), entertained the students with many jaw-dropping tricks and comical one-liners, before the students took to the stage to deliver their presentations to the judges and the Mayor of Telford & Wrekin, Cllr Raj Mehta. Both groups prospered in delivering two excellent presentations and truly displayed a wonderful sense of teamwork, particularly when engaging with the Judges’ questions. Although we did not win the competition, the school achieved an ‘Award for Excellence’ from the Telford and Wrekin Council, and our very own Barney Taylor was awarded for being the ‘Most Enthusiastic Student’ to partake in the project.
We are all so proud of the students who took part in the High Street Challenge; they have truly believed in their ideas; demonstrated strong teamwork; learned from the criticism from their professional mentors and have been resilient and committed throughout the competition.
