Special Schools Young Entrepreneurs

GFirst LEP’s Education Team ran its Young Entrepreneurs day on Wednesday 21st June at the Pavilion in Cheltenham, for 6 special schools from across the county, with the schools taking part bringing students with Moderate Learning Difficulties (MLD) together.

MC’d by Katherine Johnson of the education team, the day began at 9 45am with an ice breaker game, before students were separated into teams from a mix of the schools to encourage inclusion, team work and social interaction. Each team was also joined by a business volunteer to offer advice and project steer.

They were given a brief to design a brand new adventure park, with materials being available for them to present their pitch in an artistic format. Students had to demonstrate that they understood how important it was to consider infrastructure, pricing and demographics.

With a £2 budget not only did the students need to be mindful of the monetary element when selecting materials from the shop, but they also had to barter with Nathan and Will from GFirst LEP who turned shopkeepers for the day. 

The day was a brilliant success with all the entrants coming up with some fantastic ideas and concepts. With the help of their business guides, the students designed clever and well thought out adventure parks, before each team took to the stage to present their ideas.

The judging panel were very impressed with the attention to detail and how closely the brief had been followed, so selecting a winner proved to be a tough challenge, but Team 9 were victorious with their aptly named park Awesome Activities Action Park which included archery, crazy golf and a nature area.   

The schools who took part were:

Alderman Knight School

Belmont School

Bettridge School

Heart of the Forest School

The Milestone School

The Shrubberies School

For more information on the work our Education Team does with both secondary mainstream, and secondary special schools across the county, or if you are a local business and would like to become a mentor, please contact: education@gfirstlep.com or call us on 01242 715480