In a fantastic display that demonstrated their enthusiasm, knowledge and ability to show off authentic Spanish costume, Year 8 pupils from Bridgemary Community Sports College beat entries from secondary schools across the region to win this year's 'A Place in Europe' competition.

Armed with feathered fans, flamenco dresses and delicious Spanish tapas of Chorizo and tortilla, there was no doubt in anyone's mind that when the Bridgemary team stood up to complete for 'A Place in Europe', they meant business!

A dozen secondary schools entered the annual competition which was created and run by Portsmouth EBP to promote language learning and business enterprise . Now in its third year, teams of students are asked to create a company that relocates families from the UK to a country of their choice.

'The teams combine their foreign language skills with an understanding of business by taking on roles such as Managing, Finance and Marketing Directors,' explains Suzanne Lewis, Project Co-ordinator for the EBP. 'The entries that make it through to the final have always been of a very high standard, but this year more than ever we felt the students really enjoyed the challenge.'

Along with finalist teams from Bay House School in Gosport and Miltoncross School in Portsmouth, the pupils at Bridgemary presented their company to a panel of expert judges, explaining individual roles and how they had moved their imaginary family to Spain by finding them a house, transport, work permits and jobs.

'In previous years, both entries and finals have been predominately French, so I was suprised that Bay House were the only French finalists this time,' said Judge, Dawn Wall, Translation Manager for Fareham-based company, Intonation. 'Spanish was well represented by the other finalists, which perhaps reflects its growing importance as a world language.'

When the winner was announced by Chamber of Commerce President and owner of Polyglot Solutions , Dr Jay Kettle-Williams, there were screams of delight from the Bridgemary Senor and Senoritas.

'I can't beleive we won.' said Charlie Hammond, a member of the winning team. 'We were really nervous, but we felt we had done our best and our Spanish teacher, Miss Andueza got us these amazing costumes from her family in Spain. Most of us have been to Spain and love going on holidays there, so we will continue to learn Spanish to use in the future.'

'We didn't know until we had made our decision that the Bridgemary team consisted of Year 8 pupils, while the other two finalists were a year older in Year 9,' said Jacqueline Snow, Recruitment Officer for consultancy, ARM. 'That just made their presentation even more impressive and well-deserved.'