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Young Enterprise
Young Enterprise is a national charity that delivers an exciting,
practical hands-on business experience to young people. Locally the
organisation is run by volunteers from Business and Education, who form
Young Enterprise Boards.
Team Programme
The Young Enterprise Team Programme is not a business game but a real
business experience over one or two academic years. Through the Young
Enterprise Programme students will find out for themselves how a company
works. They will gain new skills such as:
• Working as a team
• Solving problems
• Improving computer knowledge
• Achieving good communication
• Gaining numeracy skills
• Taking responsibility for your own learning
Each member of the company must be a shareholder, and may sell shares to
others to raise money to start your Company. Each company will produce a
final report and present the company results to the shareholders’
meeting.
Experience gained through the Young Enterprise Team Programme is valued
by employers and colleges. What the Students do
• In Team Programme they will form a company with the other members of
their group.
• Their group will divide into teams.
• In their Team they will have a job to do.
• Their Company will run a business.
Team Enterprise at Westhaven
How Bloom’ n ‘Pots started
In September year 10 led by Tony Smith formed their Company. The class
with Tony’s help voted on who took on which role in the company. Shares
were to be sold at fifty pence each but one person could buy no more
than twenty shares. They decided to use Horticulture as their focus, as
it is part of their curriculum. They decided to grow and sell plants.
After suggestions a vote took place and Bloom ’n’ Pots was the elected
company name. It was also suggested that they would like to buy
themselves a T.shirt and they would like their company name printed on
them. They would like them to be a green polo T.shirt but maybe would
settle for black if not available.
They decided they would make customised pots, decorating them with
greetings like Merry Christmas and Happy Birthday. Also they could add a
personal name. They soon became aware there was a trade fair in the
Sovereign Centre in Weston-super-Mare, so they would have to get going
and designing!
The first main product was a terracotta pot, which they then glued
shells to and hand painted in Mrs Johnson’s art lesson, (which was a
link to the ‘Heritage project’). They all took cuttings from a trailing
plant, which they planted up into their decorated pots. The greetings
were presented on a card that was made to put into the soil. Year 10
made these in their D & T lesson with Mr Davies. They were designed on
the computer, cut out, laminated and finally cut out again so they would
be waterproof. They made many greetings from ‘Merry Christmas’ to ‘It’s
a boy!’ These were made in large quantities and sold individually or in
bundles, which were sold in envelopes especially made on the computer in
school. One was put in every plant sold.
The trade fair was on the 20th November 2005 and almost all of year 10
went along and helped out during the day and seemed to enjoy their day.
There were 6 different businesses but Westhaven was the only Year 10 as
the others were sixth formers! Bloom ‘n’ Pots won the award for the best
attending school, for which they received a certificate and a trophy.
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The next project to plan for was Christmas. Mrs Slade found an
advertisement for one hundred Christmas Trees at a good price. So it was
decided that they would purchase the trees and use them as their next
product. The class decided to plant these Christmas trees in red pots,
which they would decorate with ribbon and later decorate the trees with
strands of tinsel and their own made stars. After costing materials year
10 came to the decision to sell them potted and decorated for £4.50
each. They also had lots of the plant greeting tickets to sell. They
identified many opportunities to sell their products. The first main
event was at the school bazaar, which was on the evening of 7th December
’05, where they followed ‘selling and marketing strategies’. From then
they managed to sell some at the ‘Fun Cycle Day’, the school production
evening, the school Christmas dinner and finally on the afternoon of the
presentation assembly. There were some unsold trees but everyone agreed
that it had been a successful product. The Financial Director and his
deputy went with Mr Richardson to pay the money into the bank. It was
announced that Bloom ‘n’ Pots was £326.11 in profit. All shareholders
were delighted!After Christmas the Board decided on what was going to be their next
project. They decided to target Valentines Day. Between them they
decided that they would use a red rose in a glass/vase with glass beads
to hold it and use confetti and ribbon to decorate. The selling prices
would vary as production costs differed. It was decided they would
charge £4.99, £3.99 and £2.49 depending on size. At this time it was
decided to settle for a black T.shirt as green was not available and
during their D and T lesson with Mr Davies they came up with a design
for their name and logo for their T.shirts. They were lucky to be given
the opportunity to have a retail stand at Sanders Garden World on
Wednesday 8th February ’06. Year 10 were able to man the stand and have
a go at selling to the public. It was a good experience for everyone and
a variety of products were sold. The rest of their products were to be
sold on Friday the last day of term to anyone in the school. A
percentage of products were kept at school so that pupils and staff
would be able to purchase a Valentine gift. At the end of Friday almost
all of their gifts had been sold and there were only a few roses left.
At their next Board meeting it was decided that the Valentines venture
had been a success.
During the Valentine project year 10 had a new experience. ITV came into
school and filmed them whilst they prepared for their stand at Sanders.
One group worked with Tony Smith and prepared the advertising using
photos and making posters. Another group worked with Mrs Bailey putting
together all their gifts that they were to sell. Mr Richardson took his
group to replant the Christmas trees that were left over from the
Christmas venture. Mr Davies had a group working on the embroidery machine
putting the logo on their T.shirts and designing gift tags for the
gifts. The TV crew filmed all of them at some stage during their two-day
stay at the school. The TV crew also went to Sanders Garden World and
filmed them selling to the public. The programme will be screened on
‘Teachers TV’ later this year.
The closing stages
Bloom ‘ n’ Pots next project was to make something for
Mothers Day. During the planning stage for a Valentines Day
product a ‘Passion Pack’ was suggested. So this idea was
suggested again and the Pamper Pack for mum came up. In this
they decided to include bought items, which included a bath
treat, scented candle, artificial flower, chocolates, note pad
and pen. Also in the pack was some of their own computer
designed ideas, which included a promise to their mum, some
jokes, a poem scroll, a joker (which mum could use only once), a
set of red and yellow cards (I think you can imagine what they
are for!) a crossword, a word search and how to pamper your
feet suggestion. This was a brilliant idea and they decided to
sell these for £2.99. To try and make something for everyone,
they decided to make a ‘No Frills Pamper Pack’, which contained
only paper items and they sold this for 99p. The pens that
were included in the pack had a greeting printed off the
computer put in them to make them special and were also sold
individually at 25p each. They also suggested they would like to
sell a framed poem, which was sold for £1.49 and they also
managed to find some nice heart shaped frames so they were
sold with a greeting in for 99p. Again they had a successful
venture and sent orders forms throughout the school prior to
going on sale at break time. The pre-order form worked really
well especially for KS2.
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In a flash Easter was upon them and so it’s back to planning.
This time they went for using horticulture and decided to use
kit wheelbarrows, make them up in their D and T lessons and
plant them in their horticulture lesson. They went back to
make a few Easter greeting ‘dippers’ like the Christmas ones.
The finished product looked really good and was sold for
£5.99. Also as it was Easter they wanted to sell chocolate
eggs, so they packaged three small hollow eggs in a plastic tub
with shredded tissue (straw) and added a little yellow chick.
These were called ‘Easter Tweets’ and were sold for £1.99.
Another product that was made was an ‘Easter Greeting’, which
was a computer printed ‘Happy Easter’, cut into a strip and had
a yellow chick glued on, these were sold for 25p. The final
product for this activity was an Easter card, most of the
group made a design for these and they were sold for 35p.
These looked very professional.he Weston Federation Of Schools held a presentation evening
at the Winter Gardens in Weston on the 9th May 2006. All the
members of Bloom ‘N’ Pots won a ‘Weston Federation Young
Citizen Of The Year award’ for their Team Enterprise. Each
of them was presented with a certificate and almost all
attended the event.What a busy time they have had with two celebrations so close,
so they decided to do one last product. With ‘Fathers Day’ and
‘The World Cup’ close together it was decided they would
combine the two. So they chose a square pot planted with red
and white flowers to make the St. George flag. It was also
suggested to add a ‘dipper’ with an England player on it and an
England flag in the pot. They were sold for £7.50 and these
were all the sold before England went out of the ‘World Cup’!
Bloom ‘N’ Pots were invited to attend a competition in Bristol
at Kingsweston House, on the 17th May 2006. Six schools
/colleges were there in total and it was decided that company
members Nicholas, Chantelle, Lauren, Luke, Rachel, Joe and
Martin would attend. They took all their products to date with
them, which was the shell pots right up to the World Cup Pots.
Each of them wore their company T-shirt. The staff that
supported them were Mr. Richardson, Mr. Davies and Mrs
Bailey. Tony Smith attended too and he won the award for
‘Business Advisor of the year’. There were six awards to be
awarded in all and what an achievement Bloom ‘N’ Pots won the
award for the ’West of England Young Enterprise Team
Company Of The Year’, it was such a great achievement.Shortly after this
event Bloom ‘N’ Pots were invited again on
the 6th June 2006 to another competition, this was the next in
succession after having the won for the South west Of
England. This time it was at Hestercombe Gardens in Taunton.
Again they had to decide who attended this competition and
the problem was that all the class were on Work Experience.
Lauren, Daniel and Joe attended the event. Tony Smith joined
Mr. Richardson, Mr. Davies and Mrs Bailey at Hestercombe.
Again they took all their products with them and a catalogue of
evidence identifying development of each product. Ten other
schools/colleges attended the competition from as far away as
Cornwall, Dorset and Gloucester. Again each of them wore
their company T-shirts and so did most of the other companies
entering have their own uniform but Bloom ‘N’ Pots stood out
as they had their company name and logo on them. Each
company was given an individual award for having reached the
final, so it was great to be going back with something. The
prizes were awarded in a super marquee and on the tables was
a gift for each company member thanks to Coca Cola and Intel,
which included a cap or t-shirt or pencil case. Bloom ‘N’ Pots
did it again they won Young Enterprise South West Team
Programme. What a fantastic achievement.
To celebrate Bloom ‘N’ Pots remarkable success a special
assembly was held for them and all the parents were invited.
Each member of the company was awarded with their own
trophy, a Bloom ‘N’ Pots key ring, certificates and their own
embroidered company T-shirt.
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