So what could you do with two car parking spaces in central London? Could you design something creative, innovative and enterprising in that 8.4m x 2.4 m space? Could you serve the community or turn a profit? Could you make it sustainable?

That was the challenge that Mr Dyson and Mr Macdonald-Brown set our Year 10s in their weekly Enrichment session three weeks ago.

In groups, the girls came up with ideas and then worked on the designs, and their projected costs and income, before pitching their visions – last Friday – to a panel of external judges (Ellen and Ed from the Grosvenor Estate, and legendary local entrepreneur Zena from Masterpeace).

The judges were treated to 6 fabulous pitches, from Brown Pages, a pop-up second-hand book exchange, to Bus-For-Us, a homeless shelter and cafe in a double decker bus. The girls incorporated all sorts of extras into their pitches: songs, statistics, logos and slogans, dramatisations, original websites, complex calculations of how much electricity you could generate from a vigorously-pedalled exercise bike – and excellent names. Taken together, the girls’ ideas painted a truly inspiring picture of the kind of city where I, for one, would love to live: where streets are lined not with empty, grey cars but with colourful community projects and enterprises, full of energy and imagination.

Such was the quality and variety of the pitches that the judges – and indeed the Enrichment teachers – couldn’t agree at all about the winners. But winners there had to be, so, in the end, those with casting votes awarded First Prize to…STFree: a drop-in clinic for teenagers to get tested and learn about STDs: the charm and energy of their presentation as well as the excellence of the idea itself won the day. Runners Up were The Three Helmeteers: a repair shop for fixing commuters’ bikes (replacement bikes provided as part of the service). And a Very Honourable Mention went to Ecochista for their concept of an education hub, where people of all ages could pop in to get lessons – either online or in person – on, well, just about any subject or skill you could name. Imagine any of these popping up around London!

This was such a pleasurable and inspiring finale to the ‘Curbanisation’ project and to the term’s Year 10 Enrichment Programme. Thank you to our judges, and to the team of Enrichment teachers who supported and cajoled – and massive congratulations to all the Year 10s who rose so creatively and wholeheartedly to the challenge.