Newquay Tretherras Young Enterprise students have won the title of Young Enterprise Best UK Business 2022
The Year 10 students competed against 650 other UK company schools to win the title and other awards that included ‘Best Business’, ‘Best Advert’, ‘Best Innovation’ and ‘Best Sustainability’.
Ocean Revolution is a business established by a dedicated group of Newquay Tretherras students with the aim of identifying useful purposes for recycled microplastics and bodyboard skins, as well as raising environmental awareness. The company create and sell items made from objects recycled from Newquay’s beaches. Eden Hayles, Head of Customer Services, says ‘Our jewellery has a hidden message: we want it to be a conversation starter and make people think about single use plastics’.
The group of 8 students have been working hard to collect materials since September and have come up with ingeniously new ways to use plastic waste. The have collected and repurposed the material from discarded bodyboards to make hair scrunchies, bags and items of clothing.
Interviewed by a panel of judges, the Ocean Revolution team had to write a business report and deliver a 5-minute presentation, documenting their business vision and journey.
Managing Director for Ocean Revolution, Jenna Vittle said; “We are very honoured to be representing the Southwest in the Young Enterprise regional finals with our business, Ocean Revolution. Since September we have worked tirelessly to get our mission out there in our community, using their feedback to inform and change along the way. Our most proud moment was winning the Sustainability Award, proving to us that we are making a difference in the fight against plastic pollution”.
This week, the group went from strength to strength as they represented the Southwest against 650 other schools from 12 UK regions, to compete for Young Enterprise Company of the Year. Much to everyone’s delight, Ocean Revolution were crowned UK Champions! They won ‘Best Business’, ‘Best Advert’, ‘Best Innovation’ and ‘Best Sustainability’. They did their best!
Director of social media for Ocean Revolution, Grace Combelleck added, “I am so happy that our hard work has paid off. This win has only inspired us to work even harder to find a more efficient method of collecting microplastics off our local beaches. We are also working on finding a more environmentally friendly alternative to resin and are talking to local surfboard shapers to explore new ideas so watch this space.”
Ocean Revolution will now represent the UK in Tallinn in Estonia in an all-expenses-paid trip of a lifetime. They will arrive in Tallinn on 12th July and spend three days at a Gen-EE conference competing against 40 other European companies, enjoying an opening ceremony, a gala dinner, and an awards ceremony, staying in a hotel and doing some sightseeing. Of course, they are there to compete and the conference programme is challenging – with the President of Estonia rumoured to be one of the judges!
Last week, the team were interviewed by BBC’s Johnny Rutherford and you may have seen them on BBC Spotlight.
NT Business Studies teacher, Hayley Bissenden has been working closely with the team and will accompany them to Tallinn next month. Hayley is rightly proud of the group and points out that some of the pupils have never left the UK or even been on a plane before. This an incredible opportunity for CELT pupils and Eden Hales sums it up when she says ‘When we found out the news we were so excited and happy that our hard work paid off! We are looking forward to going to Estonia and are very proud to represent the UK and Cornwall!’
