Reach Out does Business and Social Enterprise 2016
For our Business and Enterprise Day 2017, we asked children to assess their local area and think about a solution to a social, cultural or environmental issue.
In pairs, teams had to research previous case studies of social entrepreneurship in Nottingham and think up initial ideas. By the late morning, children had to think of one achievable idea and develop it into a project plan, filling in a proposal form that considered cost, stakeholders, timescales and outcomes.
The variety of proposals included an ‘Anti-cigarette Store’, a ‘Cultural Cookery Class’ and an animal theme park with sports complex.
Aims
Raise children’s aspirations and community engagement through social entrepreneur challenge.
Give children the opportunity to devise a solution to a creative, cultural or environmental problem within their immediate community.
Introduce project management and entrepreneurial thinking with specially designed resources.
Enable children to pitch their plans to Young Enterprise mentor and NGHS school governor.
Background
All children discussed issues or concerns within their immediate community and created a ‘wish list’ of solutions.
Applied Force Field Analysis to ideas and rationalised solutions.
All school teams completed a Project Proposal form that included resources and budgets.
Children pitched their ideas to all attendees and a panel of Enterprise judges (NGHS School Governor and Teacher of Business Studies).
Children and staff identified critical thinking and increased confidence.
Teachers commented on the effective team working, negotiation and listening skills practised by the children during the day. The event focused on giving children a voice and developing leadership skills over competitive learning.
Resources
Designed by SLT and Business Studies teacher, our resources were focused on project planning and are available free of charge on our website.
Impact
One school continued to develop their Culture and Language Club that encouraged EAL pupils to make new friends and celebrate diversity. The school has since developed a dedicated lunchtime club and over 5 languages have been running since Summer term 2017.
In November 2017, NGHS Reach Out presented a cheque of £300 to help develop the school’s club. The sponsorship would enable the school to widen their provision to cookery and skill-share sessions on a repetitive basis, reaching more children across the school.
Pupil Involvement
67 boys and girls from Years 4 and 5 across 10 schools.
