Mayor's Fund for London and Elena Baturina's Be Open Highlight Creativity and Business Acumen of the Capital's School Children

LONDON, June 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

City Hall played host to children from six London schools seeking essential funding for their community projects as part of the Mayor's Fund for London City Pitch initiative.

City Pitch, supported by Be Open, the international think-tank founded by entrepreneur and philanthropist Elena Baturina, encourages and helps young Londoners to step up as leaders, learn new skills, and make a real difference in their communities.

Today's event saw them deliver presentations to a panel of expert judges - including Be Open's Ms Baturina, in a Dragon's Den-style event to secure £1,500 funding to help launch and run their projects.

The six schools reached today's City Pitch finals after being chosen from dozens of the capital's schools earlier in the year. The school teams each delivered a 10-minute presentation to the judges in front of fellow pupils, teachers, the media and other City Hall dignitaries.  

The six schools and their projects were:

• Stop Smoking - Argyle Primary School, Camden - a campaign to encourage teenagers to stop smoking.
• Rad Road Rangers - Elmhurst Primary School, Forest Gate - a road safety awareness campaign.
• The Green Team - Ferry Lane Primary School, Tottenham Hale - a campaign to help prevent pollution and protect local wildlife.
• Tooting Community Time - Sellincourt Primary, Tooting - staging 'phenomenal' family events utilising local areas.
• We Are Healthy - Rhyl Primary School, Belsize Park - promotion of mental and physical health in their school community with meditation and yoga sessions for young people.
• Families in Need - New North Academy, Islington - providing essential items for families living in poverty.

Be Open's founder Elena Baturina says: "Today I was immensely impressed by the creativity, thought and planning that went into every presentation. Many of the children are still at primary school, yet showed maturity and confidence when presenting to a room full of adults, and their peers. It's this kind of skill that makes me very confident that the next generation will be more than prepared to meet the challenge of successfully working together to improve their own lives, and those of people in their communities. City Pitch helps them take creative community project ideas and turn them into real social enterprises - a major step in creating leaders of tomorrow."