Sponsors
Week 1
Team name: DCS FUNdraisers
Tell us what you have been doing this week
This week, we have been busy coming up with our own team name and logo. The winning name and design was DCS FUNdraisers. The design team at Grahams Construction kindly made our final design from our idea. With our teacher, had a go at writing a letter to parents explaining all the exciting things we have planned.
We planned and held a Cake Sale for the children, parents and local community. Around the village, we put up lots of our handmade posters to spread the word. We wrote emails to local shops and managed to get a lots of generous donations from them and our parents. We raised a £130!
What did you learn this week?
We learnt all about what the Bright Stars Project was and what we would have to do to create a successful business. We learnt about the different stages of planning and holding a event and how to make it successful. Also, we got to practise how to write letters and what information to include.
What did you find difficult this week?
Some of us found it difficult to work out change fast when we were holding our cake sale. We also found it a little difficult to agree on a price for our cakes to make sure we were making a profit.
This is Zayne with our DCS FUNdraisers logo. His ideas were one that we chose to be incorporated into the final design.
This is a photo from our Cake Sale. At the end of the day, some of us stayed behind to sell cakes to the parents and the local community.
This is a picture from our zoom call with Pam and Louise. It was very fun and we all learnt lots.
A picture of our Film Night ticket.
Week 2
Tell us what you have been doing this week
This week, we had a very exciting Teams Call with Louise and Pam from Grahams Construction. They made a fun 'Who wants to be a millionaire?' quiz which taught us all about their company and what they do. We also got to update them on how we are doing with our project.
We have been busy planning a Christmas Film Night to raise more money. Together we designed the tickets and wrote a Dojo post to advertise it to parents.
We voted on our final product which is going to be a Winter Warmers Recipe. We have asked parents and the local community to donate some of their favourite recipes.
What did you learn this week?
We learnt all about Grahams Construction and Pam and Louise's job.
We learnt about how to hold a fair vote so that everyone felt their ideas were valued and respected.
We learnt about what an investor was and how we can thank them on a page of our cookbook.
What did you find difficult this week?
We had a little bit of a problem with our ICT for our Teams Meeting. Luckily, our teachers were on hand to help!
We accidently wrote the wrong date on our Film Night Tickets, but we sorted this.
Week 3 - Half Term
Tell us what you have been doing this week
What did you learn this week?
What did you find difficult this week?
A picture of us designing our cookbook front cover.
A picture of us making the coconut buns.
Week 4
Tell us what you have been doing this week
This week, we were busy designing and putting together our front cover for out 'Best of Distington Winter Warmers Recipe Book'. We researched what made a good front cover design and had a go at making it as eye-catching as possible so that people would want to buy it. We also had a go at making some of the recipes including the 'Crazily, Crunchy Coconut Buns', which was really fun. Our teachers helped us to type up the recipes and set them out in the correct format. Now we are waiting patiently while the design team from Grahams Construction puts together our design as a PDF.
What did you learn this week?
We learned about what makes a good, eye-catching front cover for a recipe book to make it appealing for people to buy. We also learnt more about the design process and how there are lots of different stages before you make it to the finished product. As well we learned how to set out a recipe book.
What did you find difficult this week?
It was tricky to narrow down and choose which recipes to use as so many local people had sent in recipes to be included. It was also hard to decide on a final version of the front cover.
Week 5
Tell us what you have been doing this week
This week, we have been busy planning for our Christmas Film Night which is happening on the 20th November. We have been emailing local supermarkets to see if they would kindly donate any popcorn and snacks for us to sell. As a team, we have been researching films that have a U rating so that we are able to show it in school. While we wait for our final cook book design, we have also contacted local printing services to see what they will charge to print our book to sell. Luckily, one company 'Firpress' is going to hopefully offer us a discount as we are part of the Bright Stars Project.
What did you learn this week?
We learned how important it is to keep track of costs to make sure that we are making money and not spending more than we are earning. We also learned the importance of research to ensure that every event is a success. Making contacts with local businesses is also a good way to keep costs down.
What did you find difficult this week?
Writing emails is something that is new to most of us, so this was a difficult task to begin with. Also finding a film that we think everyone would want to watch was tricky.
A photo of some of us making sweet bags for the Film Night
A photo of us making a list of all the snacks we wanted to buy.
A photo of some of the DCS FUNdraisers making popcorn bags.
A photo of some of the children enjoying the Christmas Film Night.
Week 6
Tell us what you have been doing this week
This week we held our Christmas Film Night where we watched the Grinch. We put the chairs out in the School Hall so it felt like we were at the cinemas. Some of us spent our playtimes creating snacks for our Tuck Shop. We sold sweet bags, crisps and each ticket included a bag of popcorn and a drink. A group of us ran the Tuck Shop with our teachers. In the end with ticket sales and sales of snacks, we made £223. Everyone had loads of fun attending the Film Night and we had loads of fun raising some more money.
What did you learn this week?
We learnt how important it is to not overprice/under price items when you are trying to make a profit. We think we maybe could have made more from our Film Night if we had priced our snacks better, selling them for £2 rather than £1 or 50p.
What did you find difficult this week?
We had a final rush to buy Film Night tickets after our final count where we had bought enough snacks for everyone. This meant we had a last minute rush around making sure we had enough snacks to sell
Week 7
Tell us what you have been doing this week
This week we did some more research into what investors are. The team at Grahams Construction have kindly reached out to some of their subcontractors, two of which are going to invest £200 each into our Bright Stars Project to help with the cost of printing our cookbook and allow us to continue our enterprise in the future. We are looking at making a yearly product around Christmas time for the local community to buy.
We also got back in touch with Firpress printing company who quoted us £185 for 100 copies of our cookbook, They kindly only charged us for materials and not their time.
What did you learn this week?
We learnt even more about how important investors are in businesses as we luckily were able to use ours to pay for printing our cookbooks, rather than dipping into our existing profit.
What did you find difficult this week?
We found it difficult to decide how many cookbooks to get printed. We didn't want to buy too many and not be able to get rid of them or buy too little and wish we had bought more.
A sneak peak of the front page of our cookbook.
A sneak peak of the photo page showing DCS FUNdraisers best bits.
A photo of some of the children writing letters to the local community asking them to sell our cookbook at Christmas events.
A photo we added to the end of the letters to advertise the cookbooks.
Week 8
Tell us what you have been doing this week
This week some of us wrote letters to the business in the local community asking them if they would kindly sell our cookbook at their upcoming Christmas events. Also, some of us spread the word at Boys Club (our local youth club) asking parents and friends to support us. This helped us increase our sales massively. As well, we got word out to the local pensioners dinner who were all keen to see what we had been making and buy a copy.
We decided to sell our cookbook for £5 as this would give us a profit of £3.15 per book.
What did you learn this week?
We learnt the importance of advertising and spreading the word and how much this can help with sales. People aren't going to just come to you without you putting in the hard work first. We also learnt how supportive our local community is as everyone we spoke to was willing to buy a cookbook.
What did you find difficult this week?
We found it difficult to decide on a price for the cookbook. We didn't want people to think we were overcharging but we also wanted to make sure we made a good profit.
Week 9
Tell us what you have been doing this week
This week was our final push to sell as many of our cookbooks as we could. We had our Christmas School Fayre, so on our stalls, both classes, included copies of our cookbooks to get parents to buy. We managed to sell loads of them, which we are really proud of. A group of us did our final numbers and all in with our cake sale, film night, cookbook and investors from Grahams, we have made £1087 profit, which is amazing. We have decided to keep some of the money to invest back into our social enterprise next year so that we can continue DCS FUNdraisers.
What did you learn this week?
How much all our little events made as a whole. We didn't realise how much profit we had actually made as all of our events have been small and nothing large-scale. It showed us how important the run up to the big sale is as they matter just as much towards the final number.
What did you find difficult this week?
The final push to get rid of all our cookbooks. We didn't want any left so we worked hard to advertise and spread the word.
For pupils to answer:
In one sentence please tell us what bright stars has meant to you?
It has meant loads. We have had so much fun creating our own business and working as a team to raise as much money as possible. It has shown us what it is going to be like when we are older.
For teachers to answer:
Can you tell us the impact this programme has had on your school?
The Bright Stars Project has had a massive impact on the school. Not just with the children who have taken part in the project, but also the other pupils and the wider community. The children taking part, have learnt the importance of if you work you see the benefits and rewards. As well, as all the different strands there is to running a successful business. It has improved their team work skills, motivation and determination.
It has increased our connections with the local community and we are really grateful for their support. Whether it was through cake donations, attending our sales or buying our final cookbook. they have been amazing.
The other pupils have really enjoyed being able to get involved with all the events the DCS FUNdraisers have held, which has been fantastic!
Please provide your business plan.
Please provide your marketing plan.
Please provide your finance report/template.
Charity name/money donated to.
We will be putting half the money towards developing our social enterprise.
Final profit (minus the £50 seed funding).
£1028
A photo of two of our children with our cookbook.
A photo of some of the DCS FUNdraisers counting our final totals.
