This week in school students have been challenged to become small businesses, designing and creating saleable products for the upcoming Winter Fayre on Friday 29th November.  

Tuesday was Enterprise Day for Year 10s - a whole day off timetable dedicated to developing the attributes and skills for setting up or running a business, with the ultimate goal of creating delicious goodies to sell at the Winter Fayre in aid of the house charities. Our students embraced the challenges of the day with gusto!

Briefed at the start of the day on their mission to minimise costs and maximise profit, they were charged with writing the step-by-step manufacturing instructions and product spec for their sweet treats by lunchtime. They also needed to be ready to present as a team with accurate costings, selling price and estimated profit and their advertising strategy!

In teams, they had to think about their skills, assign roles and then get creative, dreaming up the baked goodies they would sell. Their options were cupcake, shortbread, gingerbread, brownie or cookie and they then chose flavours, additions and decorations to make their sweet treat unique. Ideas included brownies decorated like santa hats or melting snowmen, santa's belly cake pops, gingerbread men, traditional Slovakian gingerbread as cupcakes, Christmas tree brownies, hot chocolate 'cup' cakes with candy cane handles and elf cupcakes.

After presenting to their forms, the favourites were voted for and went through to the grand final in the hall with the four final presentations to the judges! The four winners were Brookies in 10S creating a brownie cookie combination, in 10R the team with a gingerbread and hot choc combination, in 10H the festive cupcake bakers and the overall winner 10G with their tree treats!

On Wednesday it was Year 9s turn for Enterprise Day, to take up the challenge to create a saleable product with the aim of raising as much money as possible for charity! The added incentive is that every £1 raised on their stall is worth 1 house point too. Year 9 stalls at the Winter Fayre on 29th November will be filled with festive decorations to buy!

The teams had to decide on the product they were going to make and assign roles to make sure all the elements were ready to present by period 5. They had to draft their step-by-step manufacturing guide, product spec and costings then create their advert to promote their home-made items.  

Students were encouraged to focus on the skills that would make them successful entrepreneurs - their attitude, creativity, relationship management and organisational skills. There was plenty of creativity flying around the classrooms as students designed their products using wood, clay, paper, card, wool and more whilst considering the sustainability of their items. 

Designs were drawn up and prototypes created, from wooden slices turned into reindeer and shaped clay tree decorations to pompom snowmen, paper wreaths and clay jewellery dishes. Eco Gonks were crafted from leftover wool and winter in a bottle with decorated jars, cute polar bears were crocheted and decorated Christmas trees created from card and wool.

The four finalists were then chosen - Eco Gonks, Clay jewellery dishes, Winter crochet keychains and Winter Wonders - and pitched to the judges at the end of the day! One presentation even featured a promotional video with teachers endorsing the products with their own catchy slogans! Though all the final pitches were brilliant, the chosen winners were Winter Wonders with their winter-spiced incense cases and dried citrus ornaments.

Well done to everyone who took part in the Enterprise Days with such enthusiasm! 

See the full gallery of pictures from Enterprise Days