At the end of the Spring Term we had the culmination of this term’s exciting Professional Skills Programme (PSP) for the Six One with a Dragons’ Den Final.At the beginning of this term the Six One pupils started a business. Over the 10 weeks of the project, they have written a business plan, a marketing strategy, created a brand and advertising, built a website and worked through a profit/loss sheet alongside selling their products and services.They were given a £100 start-up fund from the School and all 12 teams have paid this back and made a profit.Over the last two weeks the teams pitched to a number of the PSP staff to be chosen for the Final. It was an incredibly difficult task whittling them down.
On Friday seven teams made it into the Final. These were:
We were fortunate to have a panel of judges made up of Seniors and parents, all with significant and prestigious experience in the business world. They were very impressive Dragons and gave the whole project some serious kudos. Most had been part of the programme, teaching girls how to create appropriate paperwork or plans.The standard was extremely high – so much so that the head judge, Margaret Kelly, said that if this was a real Dragons’ Den they would have invested in all the businesses.The winner was Pick Me Ups. Their boxes were extremely popular in School with teachers buying almost as many as the girls! They had a number of excellent marketing initiatives including finding a golden ticket in your box and the usual BOGOF strategy! Bespoke anonymous Valentine’s boxes also sold well. Well done to them!Most, if not all, of the businesses are hoping to continue selling so do please look them up and visit their websites linked to above.