The 2012 Speakers School Council Awards (SSCA) have just been launched and we’ve refreshed and updated their website.

Now in their third year, the Awards, co-ordinated by Parliament’s Education Service (PES), celebrate and reward the achievements of school councils across the country. More than 3000 schools are registered in the scheme, which aims to support young people’s understanding of Parliament and democracy.

Read the rest of Celebrating the success of school councils

David Cameron and StartUp Britain recently launched Business in You, a major new campaign that inspires people to act on their business ideas and become their own boss.

The event was hosted by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) in Leeds. The Workshop organised the backdrop to the televised interview and a number of graphics for the room. We also worked with our client Create to organise the refreshments.

Read the rest of Doing the biz for BIS

We’ve worked with Create for over a year now and they continue to go from strength to strength. Last week, Create’s restaurant, which opened in Leeds last summer, was reviewed for The Observer by respected TV food critic, Jay Rayner. And he liked it. He really liked it.

You can read the full review over on The Guardian website where you will also see a lovely picture of the restaurant’s interior, which we had a helping hand in creating.

We’d like to wish all our clients, suppliers, friends, families and pets a very happy festive season, from everyone at The Workshop.

Have a relaxed and refreshing time, and we’ll see you on the other side. We’ve got lots of exciting things planned for 2012…

Next year, we’re using our Mission:Explore platform to create The Workshop’s Challenge 2012, a fundraising campaign to support two of Britain’s Olympic stars of the future.

Jordan Houlden, 13, and Channien Lancaster, 11, have the support of their families and the potential to develop into contenders for the 2016 Olympics. However, they come from a disadvantaged and socially challenged part of Sheffield, where opportunities and financial backing are in short supply.

That’s where Challenge 2012 comes in.

Everyone at The Workshop will be completing missions and raising money to help give Jordan and Channien the chance to fulfil their potential and achieve success. We know that they can have a real impact on their community and inspire other young people to aim high and work hard.

Look out for more information about Challenge 2012 soon, including how you can get involved.