A Bodmin business has donated £500 to a school after students and teachers helped develop a new, yet-to-be-revealed product.  Rugged Interactive, a designer and manufacturer of active fun products for indoor playgrounds and trampoline parks, made the donation to Fowey Primary School.

Assistant headteacher Paul Trudgeon accepted the cheque on behalf of the school after students carried out testing of the Rugged Interactive “football themed” equipment at the business' nearby Fowey site.

Rugged Interactive has field tested a brand-new product over the last few months with children from every year group, gathering information on how they used and what they thought of the new game.  Simon Heap, the founder of Rugged Interactive, said: “It was fantastic to be able to ‘borrow’ all the year groups from the school to help us with our product testing, especially as my own had children previously been pupils there. “It’s so powerful to hear how what the children who are the end-users of our products and who this kind of innovation is ultimately for, enjoy and what they want us to improve.

“The most difficult thing was to keep the product secret, as it’s a brand-new innovation in the world, although I can say it has a football theme. We’re aiming to launch it early next year, so the children’s input will hopefully ensure its success.” Rugged Interactive products can be found in more than 30 countries worldwide, with the results of the Fowey school field tests ultimately informing a product that will be installed in hundreds of locations, both across the country and overseas.  Mr Trudgeon said: “It was great to be able to help a local business with their development, the children really loved contributing, and even filled out a questionnaire as part of their classroom work after testing.

“It’s important to us to engage with local companies to show the pupils what a variety of work opportunities are available to them.” Rugged Interactive’s main engineering base is headquartered in Bodmin, with another sales office in Bristol. In 2017 they won funding after appearing on BBC TV’s Dragon’s Den and have since featured on the 6 o’clock news and Channel 4.