St Anne's fledgling traders have Big Apple in their sights

FOUR budding traders from St Anne's School are looking for sponsorship after securing a place at the Student Investor Challenge regional finals.

Year 10 pupils Charlotte Frost, Sophie Mignot, Jennifer Webster and Charles Jennings made a virtual profit of more than £14,000 after buying and selling shares via the London Stock Exchange.

And, out of more than 7,500 groups nationwide, the children finished in 55th position - high enough to get invited to Bristol for the next stage of the competition.

'We saw what businesses were doing well and invested in them,' said 14-year-old Charles. 'We looked at the share price and whether they were making a profit or not.'

Jennifer, 15, said: 'We've been involved in the competition every week since November. We bought shares in BT, Cable & Wireless and Rolls-Royce.'

Fifteen-year-old Sophie said all four of them were 'really pleased about making the regional finals'.

'But we need some sponsorship to pay for us to go to Bristol and stay over,' she said.

Teacher Elaine Cathcart confirmed that the pupils need a benefactor to come forward.

'Obviously it is going to cost money for the children and myself to travel to Bristol and it's a lot for parents to fork out. It would be wonderful if there were any organisations or people who would like to offer sponsorship,' she said. 'We don't know where we're going to get the money from at the moment. We've told the children we're going, but need to secure some finance.'

The regional finals take place on 24 March and the children will need to stay at least one night in Bristol.

'We can claim up to £300 in expenses, but that will only cover one return flight,' added Elaine.

Provided the children make it to Bristol, they could get a shot at competing for the national top prize - a week-long holiday in the Big Apple.

'The first prize overall is a trip to New York and £250 for each pupil,' said Elaine. 'There are 84 teams in the regional finals and the top two qualify for the national final. We'll have been up against sixth-form students, so the children have done brilliantly to get this far.

'We're only a small school; I'm really proud of the children.'

The pupils will be busy preparing for Bristol in the hope that someone comes forward to fund their trip. And when asked what they'd like to do if they make it to New York, all three of the girls said they wanted to go shopping.

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The public and press will continue to be barred from States committee meetings.

Boyd Kelly presented a report titled Open Meetings at last month's Policy and Finance sitting. And after being discussed by members, it was backed by only three.

P and F chairman John Beaman supported the motion, as did Peter Allen and Mr Kelly. New member Tim Birmingham abstained from the vote, but every other politician - Paul Arditti, Raymond Berry, Tony Llewellyn, Geoffrey Sargent, Ian Tugby and Bill Walden - voted against the proposal.

Despite the motion failing, members did request that States chief executive Roy Burke look into the process by which information is presented to the public and work at making it quicker and more efficient.