TONIGHT the hard work of Cherwell School pupils will be sitting under Christmas trees around the city.

And tomorrow morning it will be ripped to shreds and heading for recycling boxes or folded and kept for next year.

However that won’t bother the 12 students who raised £400 by selling Christmas wrapping paper.

The pupils from Cherwell School, in Marston Ferry Road, set up their business – Alpha – as part of the Young Enterprise scheme.

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It sees students start their own small businesses, through a share capital offering, and take on company roles for a year.

They are challenged to make a product and try to turn a profit, before repaying shareholders, paying tax and winding it up.

So far Alpha has sold more than 350 sheets of its hand-drawn designs through fetes and markets and has also formed a sales partnership with Summertown stationery retailer Pen to Paper.

Chloe Stevenson, one of Alpha’s sales team, said they had printed 500 sheets at a cost of about £300.

The North Oxford 16-year-old said: “The paper patterns were hand-designed by our creative team about three weeks ago and we printed them using a Botley firm.

“We have been travelling to school fetes around Oxfordshire and also the Summertown market to sell them.”

The number of sheets sold has already allowed the firm to break even and now every sheet they sell allows them to make a profit, she added.

They have priced the sheets at discounted rates, starting at one for £1.50, two for £2.50 and three for £3.50. Pen to Paper has stocked the paper during December.

Miss Stevenson said: “I think people tended to assume it would be quite amateurish, but then they saw how they were professionally done and how good the drawings are. They’ve been received really well.”

And the group is already thinking about their next steps, she said, in the run-up to April and May, when they will finish the business.

“After Christmas we are thinking of going into cards for birthdays, Valentine’s Day and anniversaries. They will all be handmade as well.”


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