The Centre for Leadership Performance is thrilled to announce the winners in the latest Bright Stars programme, which celebrates the achievements of young entrepreneurs from primary schools across Cumbria. This year the social enterprises they have setup and run have raised over £6.4k in profit, to date, for good causes in their local communities.
Starting with a £50 stake, 15 primary schools were supported by 15 businesses and tasked with creating their own social enterprise ideas. They put their brilliant ideas into action over the 9-week programme with the aim of making a difference to their community and a profit.
The children have been learning how businesses work, developing new skills in leadership, team working and communication, building their confidence and self-belief and, of course, having lots of fun whilst doing this!
Bright Stars Autumn/Winter 2025 generated a range of brilliant ideas designed to deliver benefits for individuals and communities. You can see all the projects online here.
A Westfield Nursery and Primary School teacher has this to say:
The programme has had a hugely positive impact on our school, developing pupils’ confidence, teamwork, leadership and communication skills while strengthening links with our community. Pupils showed real ownership and pride in their work, applied learning in meaningful real-life contexts, and demonstrated empathy and social responsibility through their fundraising and charitable decisions.
All pupils, schools and businesses that have been involved are now invited to the online Celebration Event on Thursday 29 January 2026, so that we can celebrate what everyone has achieved.
The Bright Stars Autumn/Winter 2025 Winners and sponsors are all listed below:
Best Community Engagement
Winning School: Crosthwaite CofE Primary School
Business Mentor: Experience Lakeland
Social Enterprise: The Snowy Owls organised a Christmas Fayre and created games and a special fair currency for the event. They made scrunchies, mince pies, planted bulb pots and cookies to sell too.
Reason for win: The team did an amazing job including the wider community in their project. Working with the village hall committee to hold their Christmas Fayre was a brilliant idea! This meant they could have more stalls, more people could join in and everyone got to be part of the fun
Highly Commended School: St Bridget’s CE School Parton
Business Mentor: Arup
Social Enterprise: The Santa’s Little Helpers team made Christmas decorations with positive messages on them, to make people feel happy when they look at them, which they sold at the school’s Christmas Fayre.
Feedback: It was a wonderful idea to sell Christmas ornaments with happy messages at the village Christmas Fayre. This meant they could share their kindness with the wider community and help spread cheer, making more people feel less lonely this Christmas.
Best Logo and Marketing Campaign
Winning School: Dane Ghyll Community Primary School
Business Mentor: 32 West Ltd
Sponsored by Cumbria Community Foundation
Social Enterprise: The Cookie Crumbles team made and sold cookies, running several sell-out sale events throughout the project.
Reason for win: What a brilliant idea and fantastic execution of your logo! It was lovely to see one student’s amazing drawing chosen. Turning it into an electronic version really made it stand out. Your marketing was also really clever, with fantastic posters thoughtfully placed around school and shared on the school’s social media to get everyone involved.
Highly Commended School: Plumbland C of E Primary School
Business Mentor: Rebecca Watson Design
Sponsored by Cumbria Community Foundation
Social Enterprise: The Polar Bearz organised a Festive Film Night, with a showing of The Polar Express with lots of sweet treats and fun for all of the children in School. The children planned and organised the catering for the evening too.
Feedback: What a creative approach to your marketing and logo! Using Canva to bring your hand-drawn polar bear logo to life was brilliant. The video you made to promote the movie night was an excellent idea too, it showed how fun the team is and how exciting the event could be. Sharing it by email to parents and on the school’s Facebook page was a smart way to make sure everyone knew about it and could join in the Christmas fun.
Most Profitable Social Enterprise
Winning School: Beckstone Primary School
Business Mentor: Workington Town Community Trust
Social Enterprise: Arabella’s Angels decided to raise money to support the building of a new adventure playground, which is being built in memory of one of their pupils – Arabella Kelly. They organised a range of activities and events to raise as much money as possible, to create an amazing playground where children can find joy, calmness and can reflect in a tranquil and welcoming space.
They organised a Pumpkin Decorating Event for their first event, with Halloween music, drinks and snacks for the crafting session. Then they focussed on Christmas, making a hot chocolate cones, reindeer food and snowman keyrings to sell. They also organised a Christmas Disco (attended by 180 children) and a Cracker Craft Workshop.
Reason for win: Wow, amazing work team! You raised a huge £1,742.41 in memory of your friend to create a wonderful playground, where everyone can relax and enjoy time away from lessons. You worked incredibly hard together, and every step of your planning helped you reach this goal. Organising and running your own events was a fantastic way to make the money. You should be very proud of yourselves!
Highly Commended School: Westfield Nursery and Primary School
Business Mentor: AtkinsRéalis
Social Enterprise: The Snack Station team created healthy snacks to sell at break times, made by the children. These included Halloween themed snacks, fruit jelly and flapjack. At their Christmas Fayre they organised games, raffles and sold more healthy snacks.
Feedback: Wow, what an incredible achievement with over £1,500 raised from your snack stations on Fridays and at the Christmas Fayre! That’s amazing teamwork and dedication, and all your hard work really paid off.
Best and Most Positive Long-Term Impact
Winning School: South Walney Junior School
Business Mentor: BAE Systems Ltd
Social Enterprise: The Happy Hearts organised an arts and crafts event for the whole school to take part in. The pupils created wooden and felt hearts, bookmarks, friendship beads, tree decorations, bracelets and decorated cookies. They also ran a raffle.
Everything created was in the theme of a red heart, in keeping with their chosen charity, being about hearts and how to keep healthy. They raise funds for children to get early testing through CRY (Cardiac Risk in the Young), which the school already has links to.
Reason for win: The team didn’t just develop amazing skills they can use in future projects, they also raised a huge amount of money to donate to CRY. This is incredibly special, as it will help the charity screen children early and make a lasting difference long after Bright Stars.
Highly Commended School: Seaton St Paul’s C of E Junior School (see class links below)
Business Mentor: Jigsaw, Cumbria’s only Children’s Hospice
Social Enterprise: The school ran two class projects for this project, combining their profits and donation.
The MASC Jars team (Class 5O) created jars and gift bags with different themes. All jars had a hot chocolate sachet and a handmade bracelet as well as a hug, plus jars each had an extra gift depending on the theme (mystery, art/creative, sweet or Christmas). They ran a Christmas Coffee Day to sell their products.
The Sweet Treats (Class 5N) pupils made sweet kebabs and sweet boxes to sell. All had positive quotes as labels. For Christmas they created snowmen kebabs, which they sold at a coffee morning/afternoon too.
Feedback: The two school teams haven’t just developed amazing business skills that they can use for future projects, they’ve also donated 50% of their combined profits to Jigsaw Charity, helping people and making a difference that will last into the future.
Best Team Work, Collaboration and Leadership
Winning School: Grasslot School
Business Mentor: Firpress Ltd
Social Enterprise: The Kind Kids of Christmas designed festive goods and hosted engaging activities at the school’s Christmas Fayre. They made sweetie cones, reindeer dust, decorations, bells and calendars. They also created a project book with their mentor to report on their progress.
Reason for win: The team worked really well together to make big decisions, learning that choosing ideas as a group makes the team even stronger. They shared their knowledge, supported one another and picked the best products together. They also built an amazing partnership with Firpress, working closely with them on important decisions like their brilliant logo. This teamwork helped Firpress share new ideas and support them in creating the best products to sell.
Highly Commended School: Rockcliffe CE Primary School
Business Mentor: My Community Penrith
Sponsored by Cumbria Community Foundation
Social Enterprise: The Rockcliffe Roots pupils organised a community fair, to bring their community together, to be inclusive and for everyone to enjoy. They baked cakes and made lemonade to sell, as well as collecting books and toys for a preloved stall at the event. They also made baby blocks.
Feedback: The team got off to a fantastic start by bringing all their homework ideas together to create their final project, a community fayre for everyone to enjoy. They showed great teamwork by sharing lead roles to keep the project moving and they did it fairly by giving each person a chance to pitch why they should lead a category. That was incredibly brave and showed amazing leadership from the very beginning!
Plans are now in place for the Spring/Summer 2026 and Autumn/Winter 2026 Bright Stars programmes.
The CforLP already has a list of schools signed up and is seeking more, but they need companies to partner and invest in the programme so they can participate.
If your school or business would like to take part in a future Bright Stars project, please contact hazel.duhy@cforlp.org.uk or register online, see links at: https://cforlp.org.uk/bright-stars-primary/
