PUBLISHED 30 June 2023
With half of Year 7 on their Ingleton geography residential trip, there is an ideal opportunity to work with the other half on their enterprise skills. Not just their enterprise skills but also problem-solving, teamwork, communication, flair for design, IT skills, and thinking under pressure.
Year 7 are given a brief on creating, making developing their own soap brand. Once they have thought through their initial design it's straight up to the science labs to manufacture their soap. In this 90-minute slot, it was great to see budding entrepreneurs changing and refining their products and experimenting with different scents and colours.
After break, the teams split with 2 members designing professional packaging in DT whilst the rest develop their presentation, TV advert, and financial data. Before the final event, teamwork is displayed as they run through their pitch and gain confidence.
What follows next is a fierce (see the picture of the panel) grilling from AKS Dragons. So many of the students shone as they fielded searching questions on market research, profits, and their target market. I regret to inform you that Year 7 tend to think 40 years as being old which was surpassed on Thursday’s session where one group targeted 35 as being ‘elderly’! Also, on Thursday one group hit every point of the brief and delivered a fabulous presentation to go with a superb product. With a score of 26/30 a team from Rufford House ‘Lavender Legends’ were worthy winners and were the best group I have seen.
As ever I am indebted to my colleagues for offering their expertise and time during both days, members of Year 10 and 12 business students for helping with the technical aspects of the presentations, and the formidable ‘Dragons’ notably Cameron and Lucy for their part as younger Dragons.
Graeme McIntyre
Head of Business Education