What does the word 'Enterprise' mean to you?  For many they associate the word with business and making money.  This is a small part of what enterprise activity means to us at the Academy.  We think of Enterprise as very necessary life skills that can make a real difference in people's lives, helping them to get the best out of life.  It is our intention that all students will have opportunities to develop the following skills and attitudes:

Hopefully you will recognise that these are skills which would be useful to any job and those who demonstrate them will be better placed to take advantage of opportunities at work.

The following activities have all been part of the Academy drive to develop the whole curriculum so that our students get the chance to develop and fine tune their enterprise skills.

• Abbey Primary Enterprise Project - June 2011 
• Young Enterprise Newsletter - May 2011
• Young Enterprise Awards and Presentation Evening - March 2011
• The Stock Market Challenge - February 2011
• Kallista - January 2011
• Year 11 Interview Day - January 2011
• Enterprise Action Plan September 2010
• Tanzanian Trip July 2010
• Stock Market Challenge 2009
• Enterprise Challenge 2009
• Make Your Mark Challenge 2009
• Global Entrepreneurship Week 2009
• Enterprise Clubs Launch
• Year 9 Challenge

Abbey Primary Enterprise Project

From 13th to 17th June 2011, Abbey Primary school held an Enterprise Week in partnership with The Samworth Church Academy.  Students from all year groups at Abbey Primary were involved in enterprising activities throughout the week such as creating biscuits to sell.

Various classes from Abbey were invited to our Academy to take part in an enterprise competition to plan a concert for a new band that they created. This was a fun and exciting way to introduce the students to enterprise and financial capability at all levels.

Year 5 students used the Academy Apple Mac room to create music clips for their bands using the Garage Band program. Foundation class students carried out taste test market research and then created a chalkboard menu for the concert. Year 1 and 2 classes created logos, poster designs and merchandise for sale at the concert. Year 6 students created the overall budget for the concert and set the ticket price with the aim of making the highest possible profit.

Each challenge had a competitive element and students worked in teams on their mini projects. The winning teams’ work will be put together into a display and assembly back at Abbey to celebrate their achievements.

Young Enterprise Awards and Presentation Evening - March 2011

The Samworth Church Academy’s first ever Young Enterprise team, Kallista, attended the above award event to showcase their achievements as a company producing and selling recycled jewellery. Kallista were supported in their business activities by the Art department who helped with design and production of materials, the PE department who ran ‘staff’ team building activities on the high ropes course and by many other Academy staff who they would like to thank for their support.

As part of the event, the group had to go into the ‘Dragon’s Den’ to convince a panel of business experts that their business was the best in the Mansfield and Ashfield area. The team also had to perform a presentation to an audience including all the participating teams, local business people, representatives from Young Enterprise, the press and the panel of judges.

The competition was fierce and Kallista, a year 10 team, were up against local teams from All Saints, The National School and Meden, all of whom consisted of year 12 and 13 students. The potential prize was a pass to continue in the competition to the National Finals, the UK Finals and perhaps even the European Finals.

On the night Kallista performed excellently, using a game-show presentation style to make their pitch stand out from the rest. The team members spoke confidently about different areas of their business and were commended by the judges on the quality of their business report, produced in the week leading up to the event.

Kallista took away 3 awards during the evening; ‘Most Effective Marketing’, ‘Chairman’s Innovation Award’ and ‘Best Presentation’. Unfortunately, tey were beaten to the overall prize by Flux – the All Saints team who produced modern products from recycled old records. Several of the judges approached the Kallista team after the event to congratulate them on their successes and to tell them just how close they came to winning the competition overall.

Kallista plan to keep their Young Enterprise company running until the competition ends in July this year and then they hope to act as mentors to any Samworth Church Academy students who participate in the competition in the future.

On Wednesday 16th February 2011, 52 students and 20 members of staff from local secondary schools took part in The Samworth Church Academy Stock Market Challenge Inter School Competition in partnership with 'No Limits' education and Leo.

In teams of 4, students competed to make the most profit on a fictional stock market. This interactive game used the experience of trading to create a competitive and rewarding team activity where students worked hard in their teams to make some serious money. The atmosphere of the day was fiercely competitive as students and teachers fought to make their school the winning team.

A team year 11 Samworth students were employed throughout the day as the sellers in the ‘trading pit’. These students impressed everyone with their quick calculations of prices and their leadership skills in managing the trading pit as well as helping to verify the results. 

The participating year 9 students were challenged to buy and sell shares in 9 companies as well as investing in the dollar in order to maximise their portfolios. The challenge aimed to develop students’ enterprise skills, financial capability and work-related learning as well as bringing the excitement of live trading into the Academy.

Students competed on a group level but with the added element that each group was from a different local school so students were competing for their school. 

The winning team was the one who made the most profit. Sadly The Samworth Church Academy did not win but our students; Matthew Freeman, Shannon Wilson, Chloe Patterson and Jessica Rayner worked extremely well as a team and made a huge profit of over £60,000!

There were several prizes including £15 iTunes vouchers for each of the winning team members, Samworth Church Academy memory sticks, note-pads, chocolates and a beautiful trophy! Prizes were awarded to students by the visitors from the local councils in a ceremony at the end of the event.

Our guest judges were Ella O'Connor from Ashfield District Council, Natalie Etches from Bolsover District Council and Alison North from Mansfield District Council.

Year 11 Interview Day - January 2011

A key focus for the Academy is to prepare our students for their professional career and for the competitive labour market they will face after their education.

We feel that students of the Academy would benefit greatly from an opportunity to develop their future job seeking skills and confidence by participating in practice interviews. The interviews will be held all day on Friday 14th January and will be conducted by local business people who have generously volunteered their timeto support the students.  Businesses include Mansfield District Council, Young Enterprise East Midlands, Baggaley Construction, Imperial Laundry, Mansfield Building Society, East Midlands Development Agency and various others. Students have been asked to prepare a CV and short covering letter for their dream job and have been allowed time in tutor periods to create these.  Students will be attending their interviews in smart business dress or Academy uniform and will receive feedback from their interviewer immediately following the interview.

Enterprise Challenge

On 11th June 2009 eight Year 9 students were chosen to participate in an Enterprise Challenge afternoon. 

Make Your Mark Challenge 2009

Samworth's enterprising students rise to the challenge.

As part of Global Entrepreneurship Week; On Monday 16th November 2009 60 Year 10 students took part in the Make Your Mark Challenge.  In teams of 4-6, students competed to come up with the most enterprising idea based on a secret brief. The Make Your Mark Challenge is the UK's largest enterprise challenge for secondary schools and colleges.  This year the Challenge involved over 70,000 students across the country.  The competition aims to improve the enterprise capabilities of participating students including risk-taking, creativity, financial planning and communication.

Our Year 10 groups competed head-to head with thousands of other secondary schools and colleges across the country when they were challenged to come up with unique and inspiring ideas in response to a secret brief launched early on Monday morning.

This year, the Challenge brief was to come up with an innovative business idea that included detailed descriptions of their business idea, an investigation into their competitors and financial forecasts.  They had a 2 minute slot in which to pitch their idea to a panel of judges; Mr Roberts (The Academy Finance Director who has a background in Business and Management), Daniel Vasper (Academy Head Boy) and Gillian Durham (Academy Head Boy).

The winning idea, designed by Bonnei Newbold, Jessie Newbold, George Benstead, Eleni Yerolemou and Lauren Gregory, was 'The Tree Huggers Eco-Friendly Corporation', a range of decorative products made from recycled materials sourced in the local area.

As well as proving that they're among the most enterprising young minds in the country, our students were competing for the chance to win at a regional level and for the national prize of up to £1,000 to help the winning team to make their ideas a reality.

Global Entrepreneurship Week

Global Entrepreneurship Week (16th - 22nd November 2009) is a worldwide movement of entrepreneural people and this year will highlight the crucial role that entrepreneurs and their ideas will play in driving economic recovery in the UK and globally.  More than 80 countries across the globe signed up to take part.

Global Entrepreneurship Week (16th - 22nd November 2009) is a worldwide movement of entrepreneurial people and this year will highlight the crucial role that entrepreneurs and their ideas will play in driving economic recovery in the UK and globally.  More than 80 countries across the globe signed up to take part. "A thriving, can-do enterprise culture is part of what makes Britain a great place to do business.  Global Entrepreneurship Week is important because it inspires a whole new generation of budding entrepreneurs to turn their ideas into reality."  Lord Sugar, entrepreneur, star of BBC1's The Apprentice and Government Enterprise Champion. Last year, there were over 24,000 events and activities run in 77 countries, attended by more than 3 million people (644,000 of which were in the UK!).  This year The Samworth Church Academy will be included in these figures.

During Global Entrepreneurship Week every student at The Samworth Church Academy was given an 'Enterprise Diary' to assess their own enterprise skills and to keep track of the enterprise activities taking place in their lessons. Below are some examples of just a few of the activities taking place in different subjects throughout the Academy:

• In Modern Foreign Languages students were tasked to create a marketable educational product to help primary school children learn French.
• In Technology students have been doing various enterprising projects including designing and miniaturising an electronic circuit to be related to mass production, conservation and profits in industry.
• In Music students study 'Sounds of War' and use current and ancient examples such as the Afghan/Iraq conflict and The Battle of Britain to give the study context.  Performances and peer assessment also gave the opportunity for students to develop enterprise skills.
• In Geography students have been improving their decision making skills by arguing whether the Solomon Islands should develop mass tourism, ecotourism or alternatives.  Younger students have also been studying the impact of current affairs such as the impact of flooding in Bangladesh on home insurance.
• In Religious Studies students have been improving their teamwork skills by working in a team to creatively present a key passage for revision using key terms.
• In Art and I-media students made Christmas cards from their own pieces of work to be sold at the Christmas Fair and other enterprise events this year.
• In Child Development students were given a set budget to design their own nursery.
• In ICT students watched a video about the successful re-branding of Playboy.  Groups were then tasked to develop a product to reflect the successful re-branding of another brand name.  Students were able to use any software available to present their work and winners were given prizes.
• In English students designed a box of essential items for a soldier on the front line.  Groups were also able to put together a mock box to display with a persuasive letter to the MOD to request such boxes for soldiers.
• In Media Studies students learned about the different advertising methods available and designed a promotional campaign for a paperclip.  This lesson was designed to stretch their creative skills.

All Year 7 and 8 students were given the opportunity to sign up for the club and over 60 students were invited to the afternoon launch event on 2nd March 2010.  Students spent the afternoon coming up with exciting and imaginative ways of raising the start up capital they will need to begin their enterprises.

Students in the group have been given the opportunity to apply for a small loan to help them with their start up businesses.  As part of the 'Make Your Mark With A Tenner' competition, £10 per student has been acquired to provide these loans to students.  After one month students must pay back the £10 loan but any profit they have made may be used to help to develop their enterprises further.  Prizes are also available from Make Your Mark for the school that enters the most innovative ideas.

The 'No Limits' team were impressed by the imagination and enthusiasm of our Year 9s and are looking forward to working with our students again at the next stage of the competition against other schools from the Ashfield, Bolsover and Mansfield regions.

In the same competition last year, the final prize was an all expenses paid trip to New York, so fingers crossed for our team this time!