Grant Thornton Enterprise Day - Year 8
We were delighted to welcome professional services firm Grant Thornton UK LLP into school who delivered an inspiring business enterprise skills day, entitled “I’m an Entrepreneur”, to our extremely excited Year 8 students.
In the run up to this event our students have been developing their business skills through a series of lessons, provided by Grant Thornton, which challenged students’ preconceptions on what being an entrepreneur means. These lessons culminated in the “I’m an Entrepreneur” skills day hosted at the school, in which students designed their own micro-businesses and competed for one of six £25 loans, provided by the school, to get their micro-businesses off the ground. Students were supported by Grant Thornton employees throughout the day, who shared their business expertise to enable students make the most of the experience.
Over the next few weeks, the six winning businesses will commence 'trading' - supported by some of our Y12 students who have been involved with helping to deliver this programme. Our student teams will need to invest their loan wisely to ensure they can repay the start-up loan of £25 and create as much profit as possible. All profits made will be invested in ‘lendwithcare.org’ microfinance, encouraging students to provide a sustainable loan to entrepreneurs in developing countries.
One of the winning teams:
On reflection of the day Grant Thornton informed us: “It was great to be back delivering our Schools Enterprise Programme again with the Year 8’s at Hanley Castle and continuing to develop our close relationship with the School. It’s been a tough few years for us all but in particular for children in schools so it was an absolute pleasure to spend the day working with them on developing business ideas and plans. It never ceases to amaze us the ideas and creativity of the children and the enthusiasm they show for the programme. Our staff found the day truly inspirational. We look forward to hearing the about how the businesses trade over the next few weeks and inviting the winning business team members to our new office in Birmingham in the Autumn."