Reach Out does STEM with Business and Enterprise 2017
We asked our partner schools to take inspiration from leading supermarket retailers Marks and Spencer, Lidl, Sainsbury’s and Iceland, by designing a brand campaign for a new festive cake. The day unfolded in a series of Great British Bake Off meets The Apprentice rounds.
Aims
With emphasis on food technology, children would develop team and leadership skills; think critically and apply evocative language, attempt difficult formulas used in business, adapt to changing circumstances and prepare professional selling pitches.
The immediate beneficiaries were participating partner schools, NGHS student volunteers and staff, made up of teachers, support staff, SLT and governors.
Background
Business and Enterprise is a popular event on our partnership calendar and more schools have expressed interest in offering wider design and STEM based provision to KS2 pupil premium pupils.
Resources
Schools were asked to design a new festive themed pudding or cake including ‘your cake must include fruit’, ‘chocolate’ or ‘rice crispies’.
The Signature Round focused on initial ideas and working as a team to agree on a new UPS for their cakes. When the Bake Off Shop opened, children rallied in pairs to make sure they had first dibs on key ingredients. New products began to take shape and after 1 hour, we had some fantastic new Christmas cakes!
The tricky Technical Round followed. Lots of mathematical problems and complicated business terms to tackle. Some schools quickly realised they would not make a profit on their cakes due to the cost of labour, utility bills and rent, and so introduced cheaper labour rates and/or compromised ingredients if there product was to be sold to supermarkets.
Finally, we had the Showstopper Round. Children worked in their teams on marketing campaigns. This was a more creative activity for children with a love for colour, art and language. Team were marked on their jingles, logos and slogans, with extra marks available for strong branding. Once complete, there was time for practicing pitches before presenting to the judges.
Impact
We have received excellent feedback from our participating partner schools. Benefits to children include: "Team work; Confidence building, team work, enjoyment; new ideas; expressing creativity and learning about the basic components of running a business; They gained better understanding about financial aspects of business."
Benefits to attending partner school staff include: "New experience; Discovering areas of talent that you hadn't previously seen in your children; new ideas; Interacting with the children in ways beyond those we can access in the classroom environment; Being able to observe children working with real scenarios and overcome issues."
Benefits to NGHS students include: "Very rewarding. Improved my social skills with children. Improved my confidence; Communicating and working with children of younger ages, which is something I don't often do. Also the organisation skills we needed when helping out and ensuring everything ran smoothly. I really enjoyed the event."
Benefits to NGHS staff include: "Appreciating the different levels of creativity and engagement across the teams; I felt I benefitted from the day as it was a change to my normal role and it was really great to work with the children and see what amazing products they designed."
Pupil Involvement
90 boys and girls from Years 4 and 5 across 15 schools.
