PUPILS from St Simon Stock school in Maidstone have won an enterprise challenge sponsored by the Institute of Directors.

Six students from the school were named as winners of the Kent Business and Enterprise Challenge after presenting their ideas to judges Alyson Howard, chairman of the Kent branch of the IoD, and James Brown, the IoD's branch education liaison officer.

The team had just five hours to prepare their human resources and marketing presentation during the event, organised by Invicta Grammar School.

The students interviewed staff then wrote a job description for a position at the Village Hotel, Maidstone, where the event was held, as well as creating marketing opportunities for the hotel.

Ms Howard said: "I was delighted to see the extent to which these 14-year-old students grasped the concept of business and made such a good job of their presentations.

"To hear them speak you might have thought they had done this lots of times before, they really were an excellent example and it was good to see how much the sixth form business studies students from Invicta Grammar School worked with the younger delegates as mentors and hosts."