Business novices at a London college have won over top entrepreneurs at a Dragons’ Den style challenge.

Around 25 Newham College students, some as young as 15, pitched business ideas to improve the community to five judges, including founder of fashion label and social enterprise Caramel Rock, Faith Johnson and chief executive of Social Enterprise UK Peter Holbrook.

“They did well. A little bit of pressure is always good. It was also good to see different people focus on different elements of the business and see their energy and ideas,” said Ms Johnson, who was recently judged to be one of the three best female entrepreneurs of the year by the London Chamber of Commerce.

The winners were team Re-Store, who proposed a service that collected unwanted furniture, refurbished the items and then sold them.

In the winning team was retail student, Angella Mullenger, from Plaistow. “We were a bit scared but they were nicer than the dragons on television,” she said.

“They gave us information we hadn’t thought about. After the presentation, we felt confident and thought our business idea could work.”