Victoria Primary's Cookies and Coffee Cafe opens to raise over £600

Primary 7 pupils opened their social enterprise 'Cookies and Coffee Cafe'. Picture: Michael Gillen.

Primary seven pupils at Victoria Primary School were delighted to open their ‘Cookies and Coffee Cafe’ to the community last week.

The young people have been working hard on the fundraising project over the last couple of months and were pleased to welcome their first customers on Thursday.

The pupils had to come up with a ‘social cause’ they were passionate about as part of Social Enterprise and they chose MacMillan Cancer Support due to the number of families they help around the country.

Seven of the pupils pitched their enterprise idea for the ‘Cookies and Coffee Cafe’ at the Falkirk Dragon’s Den event at Larbert High School last month through the Social Enterprise Academy.

Pupils in the P5 and P6 choir entertained those visiting the cafe.

Lauren Stevenson, primary seven teacher at Victoria Primary, said following a successful pitch the enterprise idea was awarded £200 in seed funding.

She said: “Their idea was to open a cafe where 45 per cent of proceeds went to MacMillan Cancer Support, 45 per cent would be reinvested into the business and ten per cent would go towards school experiences.

"We opened our cafe to the Falkirk community on Thursday, December 15 and they raised £649.65 in total.

"We got in touch with Macmillan to let them know we will be donating £295.31 and they responded to let us know that this could pay for a MacMillan nurse for one day. We can’t wait for our next opening next term.”

Pupils in the P5 and P6 choir sang carols to those visiting the cafe.