Sponsors
Week 1
Team name: To be decided
Tell us what you have been doing this week
This week, we have brainstormed ideas for our business and how we can help the community whilst making a profit. Ideas ranged from making biscuits to dressing up as Santa and his elves and singing to people in the village. We thought of names for our business and designed logos. We will vote on our favourite and decide a final name and logo by the end of the week. We decided we would like to raise money to go towards the conflict in Gaza and Israel, therefore have arranged to make and sell cookies at break on Friday. Update - our cookies went down very well and we raised £75.50! We loved it!
What did you learn this week?
We learnt that as a class of 31, we all have strong opinions and lots of ideas. We learnt that we needed to listen carefully to eachother so that decisions old be made. We also learnt what a float was and how to calculate our profit and became expert cookie makers. We also learnt to use the hoover!
What did you find difficult this week?
It was difficult to accept that we couldn’t do everything we wanted to for our business amd that we had to compromise. It was also tricky managing the queues for the cookies and dealing with KS1
Selling our cookies
A big production line!
Week 2 - half term
Week 3
Tell us what you have been doing this week
This week, Jen from Paragon came to visit and told us all about how businesses are run. We learnt about sustainability and the importance of looking after our environment as well as building our business. We wrote our ideas for our project down on post it notes and then all looked at each others ideas. We then filled in biting slips to decide on our main ideas. We also voted on our team name - 6 Stars. We decided on this because we are in Year 6 and the 6 stars is better than 5 stars on Trip advisor etc! We also designed our logo to go alongside any of our advertising.
What did you learn this week?
We learnt all about Paragon Vets and how it was established. We learnt that there needs to be lots of people with different jobs to make a business run successfully. We learnt about the importance of sustainability and how to vote using our British value of Democracy.
What did you find difficult this week?
It was tricky deciding on a final name this week as we loved all of our ideas!
Today we met Jen!
Our logo
Dressed to impress!
Week 4
Tell us what you have been doing this week
This week, Jen came and spoke to us all about how to be a successful team. We talked about the different roles needed within our team and completed application forms to apply for the position we thought we would be the best for.
We also finally decided on our logo. Picture attached below. We started to make friendship bracelets - which were quite tricky to start with but got easier the more we persevered.
During this week, we also took part in interviews. Some of us really got dressed up for the role! It was Children in Need Pyjama Day so interviews were quite unusual.
What did you learn this week?
We learnt that we wouldn’t be able to make dog treats to sell because of allergies and keeping them healthy. Jen advised us that Paragon wouldn’t be able to sell these so we moved on from that idea. We also learnt the different roles in a team and their jobs.
What did you find difficult this week?
The friendship bracelets were tricky but we persevered and helped each other out! We were also quite nervous for our interviews but they weren't as bad as we thought!
Week 5
Tell us what you have been doing this week
This week, during Jen's visit, we worked on Mind Maps to organise all of our thoughts. We kept going back to the 5 Ps. We spent a lot of time making produce for the Christmas Fayre - including teaching Jen how to make friendship bracelets - and advertising our goods. We looked at different ways of advertising and contacted parents through emails, Facebook and texts. We made friendship bracelets, stars, reindeer hot chocolate cones and Liam also made some amazing wooden shelves. We took part in our HSA Christmas Fayre which was very successful. We were praised on our customer service!
What did you learn this week?
This week, we learnt that when thinking about a product, it was vital to establish the customers needs.. When deciding on our prices, we asked the children and adults around school for their advice. A few changes were made to our price list.
What did you find difficult this week?
Some of us found it a little difficult to step out of our comfort zone and go to speak to people at the Fayre, however we did it and were very proud. We also found it tricky pricing our products.
Making our goods and advertising
Selling at the Christmas Fayre
Week 6
Tell us what you have been doing this week
This week, when Jen came to visit us, we used our mind maps to complete our Business Plans. These were quite a task but we quickly realised how much we had learnt over the last few weeks. This week, we also thought carefully about our service we were going to provide to people in the village. We decided to dress up in festive clothing and go around the village singing Christmas carols and spreading joy. We asked Mr Newton - who lives in the village - to help us choose which of our community neighbours would really benefit from this.
What did you learn this week?
We learnt that in a business, there is a lot of paperwork to complete and that we had to think carefully about the products we created and how to make this sustainable. We also spent time learning about people in need and how a little bit of joy spread could really make their days.
What did you find difficult this week?
There was a lot of writing. We found that the different roles within a business all had lots of different jobs to do and that we needed to ensure we managed our time appropriately.
Week 7
Tell us what you have been doing this week
This week was a very busy one in school as we went for a Christmas Visit to Theatre by the Lake. We spent time in class learning and practising our Christmas carols to sing around the village and arranged our costumes. Oscar also agreed to bring his go kart in to transport Santa and Mrs Claus. We also organised with Paragon that we would go and sing for their staff and customers.
What did you learn this week?
This week we learnt a lot of Christmas carols and that we wanted to give different people in our class important roles when dressing up.
What did you find difficult this week?
This week hasn't been too tricky. The most difficult part was deciding on what costumes we wanted to wear!
We loved this!
The local community seemed very happy!
Week 8
Tell us what you have been doing this week
This week, we looked at financial planning and managing money. We learnt that businesses needed to make a profit to make their work sustainable. We used examples of local business ideas to think about what our expenditure would need to be before we could start and then how we could make income and profit. We then relayed this to our own business and created our own spreadsheet with our expenditure, income and profit. This week, we also went on a journey around Dalston spreading cheer and giving out gifts to members of the community. We decorated Oscar's go kart and really made people smile
What did you learn this week?
This week, we learnt the terms expenditure and income and learnt how to use a spreadsheet. We learnt how much of a difference we could make to people by just making them smile. We received lots of positive comments from the community.
What did you find difficult this week?
We found adding up the money we had received from our sales quite difficult and had to re check a few times. We also learnt that peddling a go kart around the village and up hills was hard work!
Week 9
Tell us what you have been doing this week
This week, we have worked on our final video to tell you all about our Bright Stars project. We also held our final sale to sell off all of our produce. We want to say a huge thank you to Jen for all of her help with Bright Stars 2023!
What did you learn this week?
We learnt how to make a video and enjoyed being interviewed about what we enjoyed/found tricky with Bright Stars
What did you find difficult this week?
We really don't want Bright Stars to end!
For pupils to answer:
In one sentence please tell us what bright stars has meant to you?
It has been amazing! We have had opportunities to be creative and mix with the community. We have also loved working with Jen and learning more about businesses.
For teachers to answer:
Can you tell us the impact this programme has had on your school?
This programme has benefitted our pupils enormously. Quiet, shy pupils have really grown in confidence and we have seen some fantastic teamwork and management skills being developed. The local community seemed to really enjoy our carol singing. Making crafts to sell has developed our design skills and we have really seen some children really excel in the more practical elements of our work.
Please provide your business plan.
Please provide your marketing plan.
Please provide your finance report/template.
Charity name/money donated to.
Oaktree Animal Sanctuary
Final profit (minus the £50 seed funding).
£301.76
Thank you Bright Stars 2023
