PUPILS at an Odiham school have played a part in an enterprise relay that has seen two £10 notes travel to 20 areas of the county.

The Young Enterprise Tenner Relay will see schools across the south of England turn a £10 loan into as much profit as possible in just 24 hours, before passing the cash to the next school.

Ten schools in the south are taking part in the challenge, in a bid to make a larger combined profit than schools in the north.

Pupils at Robert May’s School, in Odiham, were one of the schools to join the contest, and pupils spent their £10 on sweet treats and raffle tickets.

They ran a series of events throughout the day before reinvesting any profits in a disco party held after school, where popcorn and hot chocolate was sold to fellow pupils. Money raised from the event will go to Teenage Cancer Trust.

The relay is visiting 20 regions between January 12 and 30, ending in Birmingham on February 3.

Local entrepreneurs visited Robert May’s to watch the pupils in action, and offer business advice.

These included Stuart Morrison, from Mister Metric, a local website design and marketing company, former Robert May’s pupil Yvonne Devreux, from Director, and Helen Pritchard from Orchard Digital, a local video marketing agency.

Pupils worked hard in the lead-up to the day to ensure it was a success by marketing the event, inviting students to the disco and requesting free raffle prizes from local residents and businesses.

Di Balchin, head of careers at Robert May’s, said: “This is an exciting opportunity for pupils to take part in a business venture using all of the skills they have learned in class such as persuasion and sales techniques.

“They have all risen to the challenge with great enthusiasm and creativity.”

The Tenner Relay marks the launch of this year’s Young Enterprise Tenner Challenge – a competition in which more than 25,000 young people across the UK will turn £10 into a larger sum of money over four weeks.

Michael Mercieca, chief executive of Young Enterprise, said: “The Tenner Relay is aimed to unite like-minded students from different regions of the country to participate on one team towards a charitable cause, but most importantly to have fun while doing it.

“We want the Relay to provide a platform for the main challenge and to help unleash the potential of young people in Britain by inspiring ideas and creativity.”

Registration for the main Tenner Challenge closes on February 27.