Thursday the 12th of July the whole of Year 8 were off timetable. In tutor times we had been working on enterprise skills such as thinking about what it meant, looking at presentations and evaluating their success and brainstorming ideas. Each form was split into groups who then had to come up with a product to pitch to our Business Dragons. The teams were expected to plan, market, price and pitch for their product. I got the wonderful opportunity to go round and to talk to all of the groups about their ideas and I can honestly say I was impressed with how they worked – the creativity and ingenuity they showed was remarkable.
Each group pitched to their business dragon and only one was selected to go through to the final round – where they pitched to the whole group and the dragons. The Business Dragons awarded the runner up prize to a group from 8RB who came up with the idea of a coat worn by horses riding on the road, designed to improve safety and they gave a special mention to the team from 8PDB who came up with the idea of a non-profit mental health app designed to put young people in touch with local services. Both were excellent ideas. The final winners were from 8LT who came up with the idea of Mixy Stix. Well done Year 8!
Here is what Lauren Chapman, part of the winning group, had to say about the day:
This day was so much fun. Mixy Stix. It is a dissolvable stick of flavour that turns your boring water into a burst of tastes. This was the product that our team came up with. When we came back from lunch, we lined up outside the hall and the winning groups from each form got to sit on special benches at the front. I think that we were the 3rd or 4th group to go up and after having a listen to what questions all the dragons asked, we were even more nervous. We really did want to win and that seemed to put a weight on everyone’s shoulders however as a team we managed to pull it off. We talked about the flavours, the pricing, the packaging and it went quite smoothly. The dragons asked a few questions and Lucy managed to answer all of them with ease. Then they said that they were going to announce the winners. I grabbed onto Lucy and Ellie’s hands and convinced them that it was for good luck. ‘This group presented very well and we wish we could really invest into their product, that group is… Mixy Stix’. It took us all a few seconds to register that they just called us up. It was all worth it though because the look on our form tutors face was pure happiness and all of our friends were cheering, clapping and screaming. All of us were very shocked to say the least. Thank you to the group: Lucy Minns, Michael Larg, Sammy Reeves and Ellie Potter. We couldn’t have done this without each other and the ideas and skills that we all possess.
