RECENT NOSTALGIA: School children get down to business

Then groups of youngsters got together and decided what sort of business they should run for the school’s annual enterprise week. There were companies formed to produce notepads and pencils, message holders, jewellery, muffins, and tablemats among others.

But the most successful was the Healthy Lunches Company, a group formed to produce school lunches to save parents the work at home. They took orders one day and set to work the next; producing the packed lunches by the dozen and by the end of the week they had discovered that making money was fun but hard work as well!

Nine companies took part; all run by the pupils and at the end of the week each business was assessed for its planning and viability with valuable lessons being learned for the future. But, as one teacher put it they ‘found out that things aren’t always rosy in the big world outside school and it’s sometimes hard work making a success of things’.

In the photo Tie-dye t-shirts were the stock in trade for this group of young businesswomen and by the fourth day they had made a profit of £80. Stephanie Grunnill, Alex Garner, Chloe Gale, Ashley Lord and Melanie Dore are pictured with some of their garments for sale.