Enterprise week

<< Business & Enterprise

The purpose of the week is 'to create learning opportunities inside and outside of the classroom that enable students to develop skills suited to the workplace'.

Different departments in the school chose to use the week in different enterprising ways - read on to see what happened in each department.

Technology

Year 7 lessons for Enterprise were directed towards a Bridge Building Challenge event. In groups of 4, the students were provided with the task of building a bridge from a specified quantity of paper. Their objective was strike a balance between the length of the bridge and the load it was able to carry. The winners of the event received trophies presented in assembly by Mr Hayes.

The Technology department also involved themselves in a biscuit making competition with year 9. Here students were provided with the challenge of researching, designing, baking and selling biscuits to the rest of the school. The students sourced their own ingredients, decided upon the size shape and appearance of their biscuits and ultimately the price of the product. The main restriction to the challenge was that tams could only manufacture 8 biscuits for sale. The winning team was judged on their ability to create the greatest profit from their 8 biscuits. In total the year 9 technology group raised over £130 which was donated to Children in Need.

Languages

The French department decided to use Enterprise Week as an opportunity to quite literally give the school a 'taste' of French life in the form of a French Fayre. Each day they would role out examples of French cuisine from cheeses such as roulade (no pun intended) to profiteroles to croissants. The success of this event in terms of raising the profile and understanding in terms of French customs and cultures is clear from the number of positive comments about the event in the student evaluation sheets.

Geography

In the classroom, the geography department does a first class job of teaching the importance of fair trade to farmers in developing countries. What better than to use Enterprise Week a way of getting the message across to a wider audience as well introduce consumers to a range of fair trade products. The Year 10 geographers need congratulating on their efforts in this area, they managed to serve over 600 cups of fair trade hot chocolate, hand out over 300 fair trade bananas, and sell over 200 Geo Bars.

English/Music

The English and Music department decided to team up for their contribution to Enterprise Week. Their contribution came in the form of two limited edition runs of the Global Challenges production that was performed at the beck Theatre only weeks before. The production included a cast over 40 students spanning all year groups.

Maths/English

Another joint venture from the English department! The Orange Tree Theatre treated year 10 to a production entitled 'Love is in the air'. The production presented the year group with an interesting mix of literature and maths; puns, mixed metaphors and mental arithmetic, to name a few came thick and fast from start to finish. Students evaluation sheets were particularly complementary of the production for its humour and ability to engage the audience in everyday mathematical problems from simple division to percentage interest on credit buying.

Maths

The maths department now have a long standing relationship with the Puzzle Company. The Enterprise Week provided the perfect opportunity for the year 8 and 9 students to approach their studies in a more enterprising way. Student evaluation sheets refer to how they welcomed the opportunity to apply their knowledge of the subject to practical situations as well develop new ways of thinking.

Business

Preparations for Enterprise Week were well underway in the department as early as September. The main focus was to enter a team of six from year groups 10, 11, 12 and 13 for The Coke Cola Business Challenge Event to take part at Heathrow's Concorde Centre in Cranford. While all 24 students must be recognised for their outstanding efforts on the day a particular mention is necessary for the year 13 team (Barneet Motizada, Amrit Kohli, Priya, Bange, Amandeep Bahra, Rushpinder Ubhi and Harpreet Bhatta) who scooped first prize for 2 of the 3 assessment categories (first prize for best radio advert and first prize for best presentation).

ICT/Music

Another joint venture from the Music department. Enterprise Week provided the ideal opportunity for Mr Rinaldi to look to the expertise of the ICT department and its year 8 classes to create the promotional material for the upcoming Christmas concert.

P.E

The P.E department committed themselves to giving up all their lunchtimes during Enterprise Week to deliver a football and netball tournament. Monday to Thursday saw the knock out rounds with the finals being held on Friday. This event features regularly on the student evaluation forms where comments remark upon the levels organisation displayed by the department and the team building skills acquired by the students.

Art

Being enterprising is not uncommon to the art department; the work on display around the school and in the art rooms is testimony to this. The Enterprise Week provided the department an opportunity to test the marketability of the art work produced. The year 10 art students designed and screen printed a series of limited edition t-shirts for sale. For future gallery and auction events watch this space!