What a superb afternoon! The Y5&6 pupils have spent the term setting up and managing their own businesses. At 3:20pm today, we opened the doors for the main sales event of the project. Parents, children, aunties, uncles, brothers, sisters, past-pupils and neighbours flocked through the doors in their hundreds, eager to see what was on offer. In the entrance, balloon sellers waved brightly coloured balloons around at £1 per balloon. There were chocolate fountains, decorate your own cupcake, slushies, hook-a-duck, cheesey toasties, throw a wet sponge at a teacher, ice-creams, Minecraft on the Xbox and lots more!

The children did a great job of selling their products and have worked so hard in preparing for today. Throughout the term, they have come up with their business ideas, written business proposals, designed logos, carried out market research, produced a budgeting spreadsheet and presented their idea in our Dragons’ Den. It all paid off today though, when the pounds started rolling in. This was the second of two sales events; the first was held last Thursday for Y3&4 pupils.

We were also delighted to welcome back some of our ‘Dragons’ who had invested in some of the businesses and were eagerly awaiting to find out what their return would be from their investments. Matt, Matt, Magda and Anya, from GM Financial Services, also got their hands dirty and got stuck in with the sales, helping their companies to sell as many of their products as possible! Matt Fisher, the team leader from GM, said “We were thrilled to be invited back this year, to take part in St. Julian’s Primary’s ‘Cracking Ideas’ theme. We enjoyed hearing all the children present their business ideas last week, and then returning today to see how they had all got on, was fantastic. It’s wonderful to see the children so enthusiastic about their school work, and they have all got so much out of the project.”

Mrs Hollings, the Year 5&6 Phase Leader, commented on how well the theme had gone and praised the children for their efforts. “The children have been outstanding. From the start of the theme, they’ve all worked so hard to make their ideas work. Our ‘Cracking Ideas’ theme has provided some great opportunities for the children to apply their skills to real-life situations. They’ve written formal letters, they’ve budgeted and calculated their finances, they’ve presented to the Dragons; these things have really developed their literacy and numeracy skills in a fun and exciting way.”

The first job tomorrow will be to count the profits and then to calculate how much the companies owe back to the Dragons. We will post the total profits of all teams, here, tomorrow.

Well done to all who were involved.