Sponsors
Week 1
Team name: Buzzing Bracelets
Tell us what you have been doing this week
We did introductions and an activity to get to know each other. We talked about business' and social enterprise, their similarities and differences, sharing lots of ideas! We watched two short videos on this. We discussed sustainability goals and why social enterprises are superhero businesses and service or goods based. We got excited about the £50 seed fund and did some making a difference brainstorming, we came up with some fantastic ideas; Cafe to support lonely people, recycled packaging, bracelets spreading positive messages, finishing on Product, price, people, promotion and place.
What did you learn this week?
The difference between business' and social enterprises.
The different functions in a business required to ensure a business is successful
Sustainability goals
Goods and service based business'
What did you find difficult this week?
We had some fantastic ideas but found it more difficult to link these into making a difference.
Class 4 raring to go and super super excited!
Class 4 showing brilliant listening and participating in discussion.
Brainstorming using our making a difference brainstorming worksheet.
Deciding if to work in production, marketing, design or finance - It was a tough choice!
Week 2
Tell us what you have been doing this week
This week we chose our social enterprise name and talked about all the different functions roles and responsibilities involved in the successful running of a social enterprise. We completed a compelling application to apply for the different teams; Design, Production, Finance and Marketing. Each team drafted a plan and completed their own activities in preparation for manufacture with prompts and a power point to guide. We then set off on our different activities showing leadership and teamwork. At the end we developed our business plan together aligning our goals and ideas.
What did you learn this week?
We learned what it takes to work in design; to work in production, to work in finance and to work in marketing. The tasks and responsibilities involved in each role and how to draft a business plan. There was lots of creativity, planning, team work and leadership in the different teams.
What did you find difficult this week?
Linking ideas back to sustainability goals.
Week 3
Tell us what you have been doing this week
This week we drafted up our business plan together and we were keen to give a whopping 55% of profits to Marys Meals, a charity who ensure children in Africa get access to food and education, we linked this to sustainability goals of no poverty and zero hunger and chose our tagline 'love one another as i have loved you'. The CEO was appointed and our finance team, production, marketing and design team all added huge value when agreeing the business plan. We played Dingbats to check understanding of the finance and Marketing world and started creating our 'love' 'strength' and 'hope' bracelets.
What did you learn this week?
How to write a compelling business plan. How our chosen charity, our tagline and our chose sustainability goals all interlink to make us stand out. The meaning of 'Target Market', 'Point of difference' 'cutting costs' 'return on investment' 'product launch', 'break even pricing' - (dingbats)
What did you find difficult this week?
Keeping the production line tidy, there were beads everywhere :) But we all had lots of fun.
Enjoying making our 'Love' 'Strength' and 'Hope' Bracelets
Chaos on the Production Line :)
Super happy and proud of our stall, our bracelets and our homemade bunting.
Smiling because we made some fantastic posters and learned about marketing.
Week 4
Tell us what you have been doing this week
The finance team worked hard on a tracker to track our expenditure and profit, and they decided to track; sales, stock, revenue and spend. The production team and design team made some fantastic 'Buzzing Bracelets' bunting to go on our shop front to appeal to customers. We collaborated with a Furness College to get our stall made from wood. And finally we all made some fantastic posters for our marketing materials which have been been spread around the school in different classrooms and at our local parishes to attract and appeal to a large audience and our target market.
What did you learn this week?
Teamwork, managing time, some of us wanted to create posters and bunting and therefore we had to manage our time to ensure we had time for both, teamwork when hanging up the bunting and decision making skills, we decided we wanted to add our social enterprise name to the bunting.
What did you find difficult this week?
There was some disagreements with how the stall should look but we showed good communication and listening and negotiated a good stall set up that everybody was happy with.
Week 5
Tell us what you have been doing this week
This week we looked back at everything we have achieved so far and we were so proud of ourselves and excited to see ourselves in the photos from previous weeks. The focus for this week was the video, we watched some excellent examples of different school videos and talked about what will make ours great. We drafted up a script and we practised our lines and leading roles, with confidence, leadership, teamwork and pride :) Well done class 4. We also finished our hand crafted sign for our stall which is big and bright and will be amazing at attracting customers.
What did you learn this week?
What makes a good promo video. We made brilliant use of technology by using the school ipads to record our video and we used green screen technology so our buzzing bracelets banner could be included in the video. Also, we learned what makes a good leader and why teamwork is important.
What did you find difficult this week?
This week we showed amazing teamwork as everyone wanted to participate in the video. Balancing finishing our sign and starting on the video could have been difficult but we worked together as a class
What Teamwork means to us
What Leadership means to us
Week 6 - half term
Week 7
Tell us what you have been doing this week
We played a logo quiz game which we found way too easy, and then worked on our marketing plan and learned how to appeal to our target audience by being creative and using a mission statement and buzz words to make us stand out. We then created our own logos and our logo winner will win a prize next week. We also created lots more bracelets as our order book is getting full and our production line can't keep up!
What did you learn this week?
We learned why a logo is important and how to make our social enterprise stand out.
What did you find difficult this week?
Making enough bracelets to fulfil pre orders :) We are so pleased our bracelets are so popular!
Bee Logo
Logo creating!
The girls selling bracelets in our school church.
Lily with the winning Logo
Week 8
Tell us what you have been doing this week
This week we announced our logo winner; well done Lily! Lily included our social enterprise name, vibrant pictures, our tagline and mission statement 'love one another as i have loved you' and the price of our bracelets. As a class we then created our final logo incorporating ideas from everybody, showing great teamwork. We aced our logo quiz again! And then started to focus on a strategy to make as many bracelets as possible! We sold bracelets at our local parish and we were glad to spread positive messages to our local community.
What did you learn this week?
That at the end of the financial year business' push to make the most sales they can to ensure a positive trend with profit, and in business, there are bills, staff and suppliers to pay, and so a challenge was set; to make 3 bracelets extra each which gives us a extra potential earnings of £148.50.
What did you find difficult this week?
Our materials let us down a little bit, our elastic started to fray and it was difficult to attach the beads.
Week 9
Tell us what you have been doing this week
This week we ordered some more materials as we ran out of beads and elastic, we then made as many bracelets as possible. After this, as a class we did some quite reflection work and wrote letters to bright stars, explaining what our favourite parts of the 8 week competition were. It was bitter sweet at the end, saying goodbye to our business leader but we were so proud of how much we have achieved. We talked about which prize categories we would like to be considered for and said our final goodbyes.
What did you learn this week?
We learned that stock can run out and stall the production line and we also learned about the importance of self reflection and we did this by writing letters. We remembered that before the bright stars we didn't know what finance, marketing, production and manufacturing was, but now we do.
What did you find difficult this week?
As we ran out of materials we ordered more beads and elastic, which came to an extra spend of £31.98. As we were so late on in the competition, we didn't have time to make use of all of this.
For pupils to answer:
In one sentence please tell us what bright stars has meant to you?
It has shown us how jobs work in real life, it will help in the future if we would like to start our own social enterprise and has inspired us to give back to charity and support a good cause again.
For teachers to answer:
Can you tell us the impact this programme has had on your school?
Our children have relished the challenge and enjoyed working with Sadie to put together a successful social enterprise. It has brough parishioners, staff and parents together by promoting our social values whilst helping children in Africa through Mary's Meals. This has resulted in our children wanting to do more to raise money for charity. The other years are itching to be part of a similar project and are wondering what social enterprise they can do when they are older which will make a positive contribution to society.
Please provide your business plan.
Please provide your marketing plan.
Please provide your finance report/template.
Charity name/money donated to.
55% - £50.93
Final profit (minus the £50 seed funding).
£92.62
Proudly showing off our amazing sign!
Smiling for a class picture :) Congratulations Class 4, you have smashed it!
