Shock as London schoolgirls forced to hide safety alarms inside teddy bears

A group of female pupils at one of London's most prestigious private schools have come up with a unique way of hiding safety alarms in a "damning indictment" of safety in the capital.

Students at St Paul’s Girls’ School came up with the idea of keeping discreet safety alarms hidden inside plush toy key-rings, designed to mimic ordinary bag accessories.

The pupils said they were first inspired after their classmates said they were concerned about their safety in London, however were not buying safety alarms, with a recent survey suggesting 87 per cent of west London pupils feel personal safety is a concern for those in the capital.

Now, having teamed up with peers from the St Paul’s School for boys they entered the national Young Enterprise Competition, which encourages young people to create and run their own businesses.

Eugenia, 17, who took on the role of chief executive, told The Times: "During our very first meeting, we all discussed product ideas and realised that what united us was our love for making a change within the community...we wanted to have a real impact."

The team started by developing prototypes for the competition in September last year before selling them across the capital, tinkering the products through feedback from teachers and customers at sites including Old Spitalfields Market.

Just four months later, the business generated thousands of pounds of revenue, selling hundreds of units across London, plus bulk orders elsewhere.

They even attracted attention further afield, including from officials from the Department for Education in Gaborone, Botswana, over a potential rollout of the product in nine schools across the country.

Eugenia said: "Initially we thought of selling to people in schools and universities.

"However, when we went to sell at the market, a lot of our customers were actually the elderly or young adults buying them for themselves...they said 'a teddy bear is great for younger people, but what about us?' So we thought about creating pom-poms."

Each key chain is customisable, with optional accessories such as torches and 3D-printed initials.

One key chain currently costs between £15 and £19.99.

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Speaking to GB News, the team was praised by Reform UK's London branch chief Laila Cunningham, who said: "Amazing credit to these young women for showing more innovation, realism and social awareness than most of the political class. They identified a real problem, built a practical solution and turned it into a successful business.

"But it is also a damning indictment of modern London that teenage girls feel they need to carry an hide personal safety alarms inside teddy bear keyrings just to feel safe travelling around their own city, that is a failure of the first duty of government, to kept the public safe."

Former Met Police detective Peter Bleksley called it a "Fantastic innovation from those affected by crime, and the fear of crime", but added it was: "A necessary evil because the police don’t patrol the streets like they once used to, so sadly it’s become necessary."

He continued: "The violence and harassment that women and girls face in the UK today is entirely unacceptable, and this kind of innovation should send a loud and clear message to the Government and police, do more, much more, and do it now."

The group managed to reach the quarter-finals of the business competition, where they were named runners-up for best product and received a marketing award.

Under the rules of the national Young Enterprise competition, student companies must be dissolved at the end of the contest.

However, given their success, the HaloX team is planning to relaunch the business as an independent start-up this summer once the competition has concluded.

They hope to tour secondary schools during their lunch breaks to speak directly to pupils about the importance of personal safety and how their products could help them.

Chief Financial Officer Navya, 16, added: "Currently our revenue is around five figures. We broke even in December, around four months after launching the business.

"We would like to expand to all of London first since that was our target city, but would love to see our product expand overseas since safety can be an issue everywhere."