NatWestDay1- 026For the first of their two 2010 Enterprise Days Year 9 students embarked upon an engaging challenge involving a mixture of financial planning, menus and entertainment and most of all vivid imaginations, as they took on the various roles in catering “companies”, tendering for contracts to run a large event.

Arranged in collaboration with Tracy Marlow of First Partnership, the event was led by Suzanne Head from NatWest, who provided all the necessary 0financial advice and guidance. All 180 Year 9 students were set the task of working in groups to cost, plan, design and organise suitable menus and activities. At the end of their tough day’s work the students presented their tenders to panels of judges, who judged them on the quality of the presentations and value for money. The day was highly successful, with all participating students showing creativity and business understanding.
Runners up were a team who had named themselves the “5 Ds Catering Company” and the overall winners were “Fun Food 4 You”.

Tony Parsons, Assistant Headteacher, commented: “We were delighted to welcome Suzanne on her first visit to the school to lead the event. The students really produced some excellent team presentations. This activity is an extremely practical and fun way of bringing to life the importance of teamwork, communication and enterprise skills, which all our students will eventually need in the workplace. The importance of financial capability for young people cannot be underestimated, as it’s essential that they are equipped with the skills and confidence required to make decisions in adult life. Thanks also to Tracy Marlow from First Partnership for her support in organising the event.”

The event was part of NatWest’s national Moneysense for Schools programme, set up by the bank to develop business and financial awareness and enterprise skills among young people.

Note:

Moneysense for Schools has been developed with teachers to help secondary schools and colleges teach personal money management and enterprise skills within the curriculum.  It consists of a series of modules (“We’re in Business” being one of them), each of which can stand-alone or be used in conjunction with others.  It aims to engage young people in a variety of role playing scenarios and other interactive learning exercises to give them experience of making financial decisions.

Any schools or colleges wanting to find out more about the Moneysense for Schools programme, how to get the free materials or how to get the support of a NatWest member of staff, should contact Suzanne Head, NatWest’s Regional Moneysense Coach, on 07795 238219, or visit the website at www.natwest.com/moneysenseforschools or www.rbs.com.

All Year 9 students then took the opportunity to try out the business expertise they had gained during the Natwest day by getting their teeth into their second Enterprise Day.

Working closely with the school Tracy Marlow, NatWestDay2- 004Project Manager from First Partnership arranged the “BITZA” Challenge. The challenge requires students to work in groups to design, cost, manufacture and advertise an educational NatWestDay2- 011toy, using only the variety of bits and pieces they can “buy” from the “suppliers”, having first arranged the necessary loans from the BITZA Bank. Members of each group acted as accountants, designers, production managers and marketing managers for the day. The groups then had to present and sell their toys to their prospective “clients” by giving short sales presentations to the judges, from which a winning team (J C Toys, pictured here) was eventually selected.

Amongst the various key areas of enterprise activity, this whole-day event encouraged teamwork, communication, creativity and problem solving. Building on their previous experience students learned more about the way business operates and throughout the day there was a real buzz of activity, as the students clearly found the project completely engaging and a great deal of fun. Some were so enthusiastic about their products that they even worked on voluntarily through their lunch breaks!

Tracy Marlow commented, “I always enjoy working with the students at Harrow Way and today’s Bitza Challenge was no exception. The students were very well behaved and thoroughly engaged in their projects. They were all fantastic to work with, producing some really great ideas.”

Mr Parsons, Assistant Headteacher said, “We have run this enterprise event successfully in previous years and it was a huge success again this time. Congratulations to J C Toys – and to all the Year 9 students who took part. They all did themselves proud. I’d like to say a special thank you to Tracy from First Partnership and to all the “clients”, who had supported the teams throughout the day, who were all business professionals whose employers had kindly allowed them to give their time to support the event. There were representatives from; Aim Higher, Barclays Bank, Connexions, the Edge Project, First Partnership, Jobcentre Plus, the Museum of Army Flying, the Royal Navy, Simplyhealth, Test Valley Borough Council, Testway Housing,
Twinings and Wardall Engineering.

A big “thank you” to them all from all of us at Harrow Way”.