Enterprising students from a Shrewsbury school are selling furniture to which they’ve given a stylish new look at a shopping centre in the town and they’ve had the thumbs up from the Town Mayor.

As part of an ambitious foundation learning project, around 80 members of the Futures group at Severndale Specialist Academy in Monksmoor, who are aged 16 to 25 and have learning difficulties, were asked to set up their own business.

With the help of the school’s assistant principal, Siobhan Williams, they came with the idea of opening a shop selling a range of items they had produced themselves, including renovated furniture and lovingly hand-crafted greetings cards, candles and cushions.

They produced their own business plan and marketing strategy and when the management team at Pride Hill shopping centre offered to let them have a large unit free of charge they were ready to launch their new venture.

The business – named Futures after their group’s title –opened its doors on the ground floor at busy Pride Hill this week and will and trade for the next five months.

Mayor of Shrewsbury Councillor Miles Kenny officially opened the new venture and he said: “I have a lot of time for Severndale, the country’s largest special needs school, and am so pleased that they will have this opportunity with Shrewsbury College to sell their products in the Pride Hill shopping centre.

“This is a superb opportunity for everyone to see what Severndale students can achieve, which will lead to employment chances for them.

“I am also grateful to the Pride Hill shopping centre management for allowing a rent free period. Let us enjoy the fruits of their labours.”

The profits the students hope to make will be ploughed straight back into developing the curriculum back at Severndale.

Siobhan, who has been at the school for the past two years, said: “This is the first project of its kind we’ve been involved in and everyone is very excited about it.

“We’ve been given a long lease on the unit, which is a large one and perfect for what we’re doing.

“In the shop we’re selling a wide range of furniture, including chairs and bedside tables, which the students have facelifted by cleaning up and painting them.

“We have about 20 items donated to us for sale and you could say they’ve been given a shabby chic new look.

“Since Christmas the students have been getting together suitable pieces of furniture and people have either brought them along to the school or we’ve had our van out collecting them.

“They’ve come from all over Shrewsbury and from other places in Shropshire like Oswestry and Market Drayton.”

Kevin Lockwood, Manager of the Darwin, Pride Hill and Riverside Shopping Centres, said: “When we saw the plan drawn up by the school we were very impressed and we’re delighted to have them here in the Pride Hioll Centre.

“We’re very much part of the community here at the shopping centres but this is a good business model selling quality products as well and it will sit nicely with our rich retail mix.”

Siobhan added: “Apart from the furniture the shop is selling a selection of hand-crafted items which have all been made by the students over the past few months.

“We have greetings cards, candles, garden lanterns, textiles, bandanas, dog collars and cushions.

“To prepare for the project the students went out and about doing their own market research and everything we’re selling is at affordable prices.

“Our most expensive item, for instance, is a wardrobe at £40 and the most affordable are greetings cards at £1.50.

“The shop is open from 10am-3pm, Monday to Saturday, and all the students involved work there on a rota basis, so everyone has a turn.

“There will also be about 10 staff members helping out, which means one of them is there with the students at all times.”

According to Siobhan, the Futures project wouldn’t have been possible without the co-operation of the management team at Pride Hill for whom she had high praise.

She said: “They’ve been really good and supportive with us and I’d like to say a big thank you to them.

“This is a fantastic opportunity for the students to get some real-life work experience by running their own business and will hopefully have a positive impact on their future prospects.

“Hopefully, we’ll make a bit of a profit, which will go back into the developing the curriculum for our Futures students.”