Barking students win nationwide Dragon Den style competition

Innovative pupils have been presented with an award after triumphing at a nation-wide Dragon’s Den style competition.

Barking Abbey School students James Jackson, 15, Karim Benotmane, 14, Iqra Iqbal, 15, and Sabiha Choudhury, 15, wowed judges of the Big Deal contest with their website www.uni-set.co.uk.

It gives tips and advice to state school pupils on how to get into the country’s top 24 universities.

The Big Deal competition, run by the University of Warwick, is designed to help drive more state school children into the so-called Russell Group universities.

Karim, who with his team-mates won a trip to a Volvo factory in Sweden, said: “It is fantastic to win this competition. This has made it a lot clearer that I want to get into a Russell Group university.”

The runner-up prize also went to a Barking Abbey team, for their bleeper Hearitis invention which can find keys and other lost items in a room.