Young entrepreneurs at Thames Ditton Junior School

Enterprise Week began on Monday September 14 and pupils from the Mercer Close school were tasked with coming up with innovative and profitable ways to make money which will later be used to enhance learning in their classrooms.

Set with a budget of £20 per class, pupils were given guidance on some basic principles of business and conducted market research to develop products which would sell at a profit. Using skills taught in core areas of the curriculum including maths, design technology, literacy and art, pupils came up with a product development plan including marketing, pricing and design.

Top sellers included picture frames, rock pets, coasters, hot plates, book marks and tea light holders.

The week was deemed a big success and raised between £80 and £200 per classroom.
Headteacher Nick Fry said: "The children had a fantastic week, working as a class with true team spirit and the atmosphere on sale day was electric.

"It was encouraging to see pupils of all age groups really getting into the idea of Enterprise Week and coming up with some innovative and money making ways of raising funds for their classrooms.

"They will spend some time in the next couple of week discussing and deciding what they would like to spend their profits on for the classroom.

"It was a great success and something we will definitely be repeating next year."