The Young Enterprise Primary programme is based on the principle of Learning by Doing and brings volunteers from business into the classroom to work with teachers and students. The Primary Programme:
- Is made up of five fun and interactive lessons
- Runs over one day for five weeks
- Increases understanding of how the world works
- Fosters attitudes for success
- Promotes lifelong learning and skills development
For the 3rd year running, I was honoured to be invited by St Mary’s School in Falmouth to work with class 6 on their “Our World” programme. Year 6 are 10-11 year olds!
Don’t worry, their teacher Mrs Bancroft was very much on hand to make sure I didn’t get too cynical or maybe it was so that the children didn’t throw rotten fruit and vegetables at me! Anyway, I kept a little diary of the week and thought I’d share it with you:
Day 1 – Global Trade , Import and Export
The children eyed me suspiciously at first with the old “yeah what do you know that we don’t already know” looks about them but as my shaking eased off slightly, they seemed to warm to me after a few minutes. So the first module was all about what was Global Trade and how did it work. We had a big map and we talked about where in the world we had all been to gain some kind of perspective on the UK and the distance of other countries etc.
I had to find out what the children understood about where things came from. The course is an activities based one thankfully, so the children didn’t have to listen to me drone on too much, and so the first one was to have a look at their own belongings and work out where it all came from. There were a few “my jumper comes from M&S miss” but actually the general feedback from them was real surprise that the majority of their clothes and school bags and shoes etc came from China and India and Bangladesh. The kids were given a scale to work to and had to find out how far their clothes had travelled in air miles.
I really enjoyed this first module, they were so shocked by how little was made in Cornwall, let alone in the UK and we talked about why that could be. Their grasp of economic factors was really impressive, they talked about the cost of manufacturing, transportation and labour costs, all things they had obviously picked up in previous courses.
Day 2 – Food Miles and Trade
This was about where their meals came from and this time the kids were pretty sure that most of it was grown in Cornwall or at least the UK. Myself and the class teacher took in lots of different foods and class 6 had to make a meal up and work out where the product was grown and how far away (using the world map) it had travelled. This session was a real eye opener again and we had some really interesting discussions about why we don’t grow more locally and buy more produce locally. They did make up some pretty hideous recipes which I’m glad we didn’t have to sample!
Day 3 – The Trading Game
This game is so much fun, the kids love it, it’s exciting and competitive but they really have to use their brains and work as a team to win the game. Ok, so the gist of the game is that the class are divided up into teams, each team is designated a certain amount of people, resources and money. The teacher (Mrs Bancroft, very kind lady), was acting as the UK Trade Envoy, she wanted to import shapes into the UK and was checking for quality etc. There were different prices displayed on a trade board for each shape, the prices of which changed through the game. I was the World Bank and could give out loans, with the most outrageous interest might I add of 20%!!!, actually, probably fairly realistic these days.
Some teams had lots of people but no paper or stencils, or some had hardly any people or hardly any resources. Each team had to designate roles for their teams, so a trade envoy, resources, accounts, manufacturing etc etc.
I was amazed at the ingenious ideas the children came up with. There was one poor chap who said that his mate had sold him to another team for a mere £20! There was mass production going on, labour trading, deals and secret handshakes, the lot!
The best bit was that they loved it and so did I. At the end of the session we got chatting about how some countries might survive given similar trading conditions, and why sometimes people from poorer countries go to work in other countries to send money home. It was fascinating to hear their views on all of this and heartwarming to hear their ideas on what they’d like to change if they had the chance…….ahh bless, Whitney Houston moment!
Day 4 – International Marketing
Having got to grips with the idea of doing business with other countries, this module was focused on marketing in terms of what that meant and what additional things to take into consideration when marketing internationally. We talked about different laws, currencies, logistics of transportation, culture etc. What can I say, marketing is my thing, I felt more at home talking freely about this one. The task for this day was that each group was given a postcard from a make believe country, on the postcard were the key bits of information about that fantasy nation, demographics, currency, society, culture. The groups had to decide what the need of that nation might be based on this information, then come up with an idea for the perfect product to try to export.
The ideas were inspiring and the kids were really getting into the spirit of it anyway. They would be talking animatedly about one idea and then one of the kids would shout out, “oh no we can’t do that they don’t have electricity in their land” and they’d have to think of another power source or a new product.
Day 5 – International Marketing and Promotion
Ah, my last day, well today the kids got to have some fun by way of presenting their teacher and myself their promotional campaigns or their products. There were radio jingles, posters, TV ads, websites, even one ad was done in semaphore (a key requirement of that particular nation apparently!). This is where they got to be creative and have fun and I didn’t stop laughing and smiling.
A review of the whole course with class 6 for me was that I was amazed at how inspiring little people who have yet to experience what the real world of work is like. Their fresh ideas were plausible, their mainly naive responses to the harsh realities of the global economy were heartwarming and lovely.
In July, Slightly Different were awarded with a certificate from the Business Education Partnership, for Investors in Work Related Learning.
But the best bit, a week of school for Saira and no detention!
