What a smashing evening we had at the Excel Centre in Newton Aycliffe.  Twenty schools from County Durham took part in a project run through Business Durham (Durham County Council) to encourage entrepreneurship and an understanding of business in young people in Year 8 – so they are only 13 or 14.  The range of challenges they met over a year were really demanding – they worked with local companies to meet them.  The winning product was a docking station for wheely bins – a really great idea to meet a real world problem.  (Don’t I know this as a town and county councillor!!!)  The overall winner was Durham Johnston.  But every single participant was a winner – it took real commitment to see the whole project through.  You can see the overall winners with Chair of County Durham, Eddie  Bell, (left picture) and the school that came third with Neil Foster, cabinet member for RED.  Big thank you to Business Durham, the companies that supported the students and the teachers who mentored their students.  As a recently retired teacher, I know just how proud the teachers were!!