The students will compete against teams from across Europe

A group of Ilford students’ environmentally-friendly business plan is taking them from their classroom to a European competition in Slovakia.

The Year 12 business studies pupils from Valentines High School in Cranbrook Road have created their own company called Composters and developed an educational programme for other schools.

They will present their plans as part of the European Business Game in Slovakia and compete against students from across the continent including Scotland, France and Italy.

They won a Dragon’s Den-style national heat in May with their programme which teaches schools and companies to compost paper rather than recycle it.

Aminur Rahman, 17, said: “We are all very confident, I don’t think anyone else will have come up with anything like this. We don’t know what we’ll be coming up against in the finals but we don’t feel there’s much chance of losing.”

The group had to learn how a school could use its food waste and to think about how their programme could hypothetically be rolled out to other schools.

That would involve the team visiting the schools and making presentations.

Jessica Lee, their teacher and the deputy director of sixth form, said: “It’s a really good experience to write a business plan in the context of real business and the fact they’re going to Slovakia to meet other students from other countries and to compete against them.”

Aminur will be joined by team mates Serham Aksu, 16; Tasbiyah Iqbal, 17; Ashvin Nankoo, 17 and Faheema Sheikh, 17, on the trip to Cadca in northern Slovakia on Monday.