PUPILS from IPACA had the chance to make a difference in their community when the school put on a Social Enterprise Day.

More than a thousand budding entrepreneurs from across the school have been taking part in a series of events where they can pool their thoughts and create a ‘social enterprise’ to benefit the community.

The special day was also designed to encourage the youngsters to develop essential skills for the future, such as teamwork, problem solving, risk taking and communication.

Their ideas could include anything from one-off events to sustainable long term organisations in either the commercial or charity sectors.

Ella Collings, 10, Charlotte Pascoe, 11, Nina Guy, 11, Meryn Griffiths, 11, and Shanon Beecroft, 10, made a video to help persuade a panel of judges to choose their idea for a memory walk on the island.

Shanon said: “We want to put up fairy lights along the beach up to Portland Castle and have a moonlight charity walk for Island Community Action.

“We want to record older people’s memories of that area and then put it into an app that plays the video as people go round the walk. It will help older people with their memories and will help younger people to learn a lot about what Portland was like.”

Ella said of the enterprise day: “It’s really good. It’s giving us a chance to do stuff that we wouldn’t normally do.

“We can make a difference and choose what we would like to do to help the island.”

Josh Poole and Conor Madden, both 16, helped mentor younger pupils with their ideas and participated in a similar event for the sixth form last month.

Josh said: “We are there as mentors to give them a bit of help with their ideas along the way if they need it. When we were growing up the community helped us with activities, so it’s good to give something back.”

Organisations also stepped up to give a cash boost to the scheme.

European Electronique had donated £500 and Weymouth and Portland Borough Council donated a further £200 after their visit on the day, helping take the students’ suggestions from the drawing board into reality.

Gary Fooks, director of enterprise and communication at IPACA, explained the 10 best business ideas would go forward to a community meeting, where residents would give their feedback on the most popular proposals before the winning businesses would put their plans into practice on Portland.

Mr Fooks said: “All of our young people are amazing. They have the skills and potential to make a real difference in our community. We are really looking forward to seeing some of these ideas put into practice.”