STUDENTS from Everest Comm-unity Academy were encouraged to grab their dreams in an event hosted by a major car manufacturer.

Honda hosted the two-day ‘School of Dreams’ event at the academy for 33 students between the ages of 11 and 13.

Students from the school in Oxford Way, Popley, Basingstoke, took part in activities such as juggling and a workshop on making dream catchers, and also compe-ted in a 12-task Apache relay.

The relay encouraged pupils to work in teams to complete a range of tasks and the mix of students from Years 7, 8 and 9 were also shown inspirational videos made by the car manufacturer.

The two-day team-building event finished with a presentation from the six teams of pupils in which they had to identify issues in the community that are important to them to other groups and parents.

Community issues raised by the teams included bullying, anti-social behaviour, animal cruelty and smoking. Pupils had to think how to tackle the issues.

Honda has supplied the academy with a bursary of £500 for each team to help put their programmes into action.

Kaylee Cowper, a careers co-ordinator at the school, told The Gazette: “It was really about teaching them about their skills. I don’t think they realised how much they had learned because of the activities, but they should have left the event knowing what they are capable of and what they are good at.

“Students were given tasks to stretch and challenge themselves whilst working in teams with people they may not have known very well.”