Charity program fundraises for children's hospices

Schools across North and Mid Wales are being urged to sign up for a challenging and inspirational charity program that forms part of the Welsh Baccalaureate and is guaranteed to inspire and empower students.

Organised by Hope House Tŷ Gobaith children's hospices, in conjunction with leaders from the business world, the highly successful Dragons' Lair initiative fulfils the Enterprise and Employability criteria of the Welsh Bacc and encourages pupils to create a business idea, pitch it to the Dragons for feedback, market and eventually sell their product for profit at a school event such as Christmas fair.

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Sitting along the four principles of the Welsh Curriculum, Dragons' Lair will help develop ambitious and capable learners by challenging pupils in a fun and engaging way as well as encouraging social responsibility.

Having so far raised £130,000 for the charity and involved hundreds of students across schools in North Wales, the scheme has the backing of the local business and education communities.

The Dragons' Lair scheme fits in with the four principles of the Welsh Curriculum

With leaders from eminent businesses such as Net World Sports, JCB, Principality Building Society, Platts Agriculture and Proximo Group taking part.

Hope House Tŷ Gobaith supports schools with a £10 investment per team and will supply all the resources needed by schools, starting with a special launch assembly to motivate the participants. After the culmination of the program there will also be another ceremony to present certificates.

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All monies raised go towards funding the respite, care, therapeutic and counselling work for seriously ill local children and their families that Hope House Tŷ Gobaith provide at their two sites in Conwy and Oswestry. It costs £7.5million per year to run both sites with only a small portion coming from government funding.

James Harper, corporate social responsibility manager for Principality, said of the scheme: "It's absolutely wonderful. I had the pleasure visiting St Joseph's Catholic and Anglican High School and I have never seen pitches of such high quality from the pupils."

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Nadia McKane, sales and marketing director from Platts Agriculture Limited is a volunteer Dragon and added: "Together with other members of the Wrexham Leadership Alliance, I was very impressed with the ambitious and imaginative young people - the future of our businesses and organisations! What a great initiative."

Another former Dragon, writer and historian, David Rowe, of Mold, said: "I have had the pleasure of taking part as a Dragon in the Hope House Tŷ Gobaith Dragons' Lair events.

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"The performance of students, many of whom will never have given such presentations, is truly uplifting. The level of skills of the various groups bodes well for their futures.

"I hope that all the students who have participated found the challenge as enjoyable as I and my fellow dragons have done."

The program is open to all secondary schools in Wales, and fundraising team leader for Hope House Tŷ Gobaith, Catrin Dowdeswell, said: "This is one of our favourite initiatives as it creates solid links between our schools, local companies and ultimately local families.

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"It's so valuable when our community comes together in this way to help create quality moments for children with life limiting conditions.

"Over the past few years we have been privileged to see young people demonstrate a variety of new skills and many are very proud of the impact they have had.

"Our Dragons love the opportunity to share their life skills and give something back to the business leaders of tomorrow."

• To get your school involved and inspire its pupils, visit tinyurl.com/53dfrmen to register or phone 01492 596581.