While some youngsters learn maths and science from text books, a special group at Cypress Junior School is getting hands on experience.

The Inventors Club started last year and sparked a huge interest from students but because of the demand a Dragon’s Den style interview process had to take place with only 17 students being selected.

The group was set up by British Invention of the year winner Bill Currie who hopes that schools across Croydon will start up similar clubs and ultimately compete with each other.

The locksmith takes time out of his day, free of charge to mentor the school children and help them come up with ideas for inventions.

Mr Currie said: “I was fed up only seeing bad news about Croydon’s youngsters and wanted to see if I could do something positive and get them learning stuff they might not otherwise be interested in.

“Because I have a lot of experience with inventing I approached the school and we set up the inventors club. All the kids love it and have worked really hard on their projects.”

Faith Douglas-Sargeant, 10, said: “Being in the Inventors club is an outstanding chance to prove that children of our age can invent things too.”

Mr Currie has arranged for a stall to be made available at the next British Invention Show at the Alexander Palace to one of the winning groups.

The stand, which normally costs around £1,000 will be given to the students if they come up with an invention worthy of the show.

Mr Currie said: “This scheme is the perfect opportunity to show that Croydon’s kids are not all as bad as everyone thinks, they want to work hard and when they are presented with a challange and something they enjoy doing they really show what they are made of.”

For schools wishing to set up their own inventors club contact Bill Currie at Cypress Junior School on 020 8653 2618.

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