Sponsors
Week 1
Team name: The Bee Buds (Team Gosforth)
Tell us what you have been doing this week
After deciding that our project will be bee based, we decided on our products. We will have three different products: a bag with a fact file, a pin badge and seeds; a ready to plant sunflower and a bee home. We will have an offer price for anyone who wants to but all three products. This week we have been looking after our growing sunflowers, making sure they are ready to be sold. We have been making bee homes using recycled materials. We carried out some research on what kinds of seeds would be the best for our bags. We ordered seeds and little envelopes to put them in. We weighed them.
What did you learn this week?
We learned last week that team work is very important. Everyone needs to be clear on what job they have to do. We learned that is it easy to spend money on the resources that we need - we have nothing left!
What did you find difficult this week?
We have found it difficult to attach the bark to the homes as it is very brittle and is breaking when we hammer the tacks in.
Producing the bee houses
Weighing the seeds so we know how many to put in each envelope
Spencer watering our sunflowers.
The logo final designs. We voted for the middle one at the bottom.
Week 2
Tell us what you have been doing this week
This week we have been designing our logos. A few of the class came up with an idea then we voted on our favourite. We have also completed the Business Plan. We finished assigning roles. The seeds arrived so we have been able to start prepping the bags. Some of the group carried out research for the information card. This is starting to be planned out. We made sure that we used up the resources that we had to finish more bee homes. We got the order form ready to be sent out. We took photos of the bee homes that we have made for marketing.
What did you learn this week?
We learnt this week that we had to be resilient when it came to the logos. As we used a vote some people felt disappointment. We learnt new skills when making the bee homes. We learnt how important it is to work as a team.
What did you find difficult this week?
Unfortunately, we have had a couple of sunflowers damaged when they were being watered. This will affect our profits so we need to be more careful when watering. We also need more bee homes made.
Week 3
Tell us what you have been doing this week
Laila set us a challenge to have 10 finished bee homes by the end of the week. We managed to make 19 so we were very please with ourselves. We finalised the order form and this was sent out. We made up 31 bags ready to sell containing seeds, the information card and the pin badge.
We took out first two orders the day after the form went out. We sold a bee home with bag and a special set making £23. Theo checked the quality of the first two bee homes to be sent out.
We had to find a long weekend home for the sunflowers so they could be watered.
What did you learn this week?
We learnt that, even after saying we wouldn't start new homes on Friday, some people did. We still have bee homes not fully finished. We learnt that we had to be really careful with the bark as it would split easily. We learnt more about solitary bees from our research.
What did you find difficult this week?
Hammering the bark was a real challenge as it was splitting. Trying to keep track of bee homes that were finished and not finished - communication was not good and needs to improve.
Theo checking the quality and finish of the bee homes.
Some of the finished bee homes.
We had photos sent by two of our customers.
Packing bags ready to hand out.
Week 4
Tell us what you have been doing this week
Even though we have had SATs this week we have made time to collect in order forms and get orders sent out. We sold more than we expected so we had to order more seeds and badges this week. We also had to print out more information cards. We have worked hard to keep the financial spreadsheet up to date and the table of orders. We have found that the offer of buying all three products for £13 has been the most popular.
We also had to buy more hessian to finish a few of the bee homes made with tins.
What did you learn this week?
We learnt this week that sometimes we have to give up something we enjoy to make sure our jobs are done. Some of us have had to miss breaktimes. We are missing our Forest School session this week too which is when we create the bee homes.
What did you find difficult this week?
The damaged and dead sunflowers have caused a problem this week as we now don't have enough for the orders. We have planted more seeds but are not sure how long they will take to grow.
Week 5
Tell us what you have been doing this week
This week we are away on residential so we have left someone at school in charge of watering the sunflowers.
What did you learn this week?
What did you find difficult this week?
Out of office!
Week 6 - Half Term
Tell us what you have been doing this week
What did you learn this week?
What did you find difficult this week?
Week 7
Tell us what you have been doing this week
This week we had a visit from Laila and we looked through our orders to see how many we still had to get out. We are running low on seeds so we had to order more. We have two rolls of hessian left so hope there is enough. We have 12 sunflowers that have grown well and are ready to be sent out. We updated our financial spreadsheet. We sent out orders for the customers who only ordered bee bags. We found out that one of our bee homes is in a garden in Spain.
We also looked at the guidance for making the final video. We will work on this next week.
What did you learn this week?
We learned that it is important to keep customers informed about their orders. We learned a new technique for hollowing out the bamboo. It was much more effective. We also learned that even though the weather is bad production still needs to go on.
What did you find difficult this week?
We found it difficult knowing how many resources to order to get the last orders out. We don't want to order too much and waste resources. We needed more seeds and more hessian.
One of our bee homes made it to a garden in Spain!
We had to move production inside.
Week 8
Tell us what you have been doing this week
Laila came to help us make our final video. We chose who was going to say what then wrote out our scripts. We each went out of the classroom and Laila filmed us saying our bit. Once all the videos we done Millie used her iPad to make them into a video. We were very happy with the final cut.
We still have bee homes to make as we didn't get as many done last week as we hoped. Our quality control officer. Theo, rejected one as the bark shelter had been glued on the wrong side. We have had a last minute order so we need to make up a couple more bags and print out more information cards.
What did you learn this week?
We learned about important it is to be concise when we are trying to get information across in the final video as we don't have a lot of time. We also had to make sure that we didn't repeat each other.
What did you find difficult this week?
We found it hard working under pressure. Time is running out to get the final bee homes finished! We didn't realise that we didn't have enough seeds to had to order more of those too.
Week 9
Tell us what you have been doing this week
This week we have made sure that the finance spreadsheet is up to date. We have also tidied up any materials we had left over. We have seeds left over so they will be planted at school. We sent a thank you message out on Class Dojo to thank everyone who placed an order.
What did you learn this week?
We learned that it is important to thank your customers and anyone who has helped us along the way.
What did you find difficult this week?
This week has been a problem free week!
For pupils to answer:
In one sentence please tell us what bright stars has meant to you?
We have really enjoyed running our own business and have learnt how to work together and communicate well with each other.
For teachers to answer:
Can you tell us the impact this programme has had on your school?
The programme has had a really positive impact on the class. They have learned to work together as a team and listen to the ideas of others. They have also discovered the work and time commitment it takes to start up a social enterprise. They are really proud of what they have produced and the sales they have made.
Please provide your business plan.
Please provide your marketing plan.
Please provide your finance report/template.
Charity name/money donated to.
The money will be used to purchase planters to go around school that can have bee attracting flowers planted in them.
Final profit (minus the £50 seed funding).
£501.22
