"The Enterprise Challenge has been an opportunity for the school to show the skills and talents of our children."
For students at Swinton High School in Salford, the last 12 months will go down as a year they will never forget.
This time last year, they were embarking on the Premier League Enterprise Challenge, which allows young entrepreneurs to work with their local football club as they form business plans to meet a brief set by Premier League Executive Chairman Richard Scudamore.
After months of hard work, presentations and pitches, the team came through club and regional heats before winning the London final in March for Manchester United after impressing a panel of judges which included entrepreneur and Dragons' Den star Theo Paphitis.
With the 2016/17 Enterprise Challenge kicking off this week, Swinton High School headteacher Mark Harrison describes the impact the Challenge has had on his school.
"Projects such as this mean that we can really focus on communication skills, working as a team, problem solving, things that when it comes to working in business and industry they are going to face on a daily basis.
"There's a risk of the curriculum being so focused on knowledge and if we forget the soft skills that we need to develop the children I think it's a downfall of their education.
"Over the course of the tournament the students changed massively. I am thinking particularly of two boys who I taught for two and a half years and hardly heard them speak.
"They weren't children who pushed themselves forward or were comfortable speaking in front of an audience but by the end of the challenge they had spoken in front of hundreds of people and been grilled by a 'Dragon' off the telly.
Fantastic to see the reigning Enterprise champions enjoying a meeting with Chief Executive of the @premierleague, Richard Scudamore. #MUFC pic.twitter.com/BVWyFNYa2E
— Man Utd Foundation (@MU_Foundation) September 29, 2016
"When I got the call to say we had won there was a combination of jumping around the office happy and almost crying because I knew how much time and effort the children put in and how much positivity that would bring to the school.
"Winning this is a major thing for Swinton High. I can't think of another way where 30 children from the winning form would be invited to Manchester United, full dinner, tickets to the match, out onto the pitch at half-time and presented to the crowd.
"This challenge open doors to routes in life that the students may not have thought about this time last year. It's about opening their horizons and raising their aspirations. I don't mean those as throwaway catchphrases, we've seen it have a real difference on some of our children.
"For many of our children, going to Manchester is a long way so to go to London, the Houses of Parliament, and to open their eyes to what they can achieve if they put the work in, is just invaluable.
"The Enterprise Challenge has been an opportunity for the school to show the skills and talents of our children and it's been an opportunity for our children to step up and show they can compete against the best of everywhere in Britain."
