Enterprise and Entrepreneurship at Pool Hayes Primary
Our fantastic Year 6 House Captains competed in the 2020/21 'Tycoon Enterprise Competition' national young entrepreneur competition. The team delivered after school club activities to promote and improve pupils sporting ability, teamwork skills and general health. They were very excited by the prospect of learning how to work as a business team to begin their own company. "We took up the Tycoon challenge at Pool Hayes Primary and jumped at the chance of competing against other Primary schools in the UK" said Grace, House Captain for Lex.
"We had team meetings to decide on our roles and responsibilities, worked together to develop business ideas and started our business plan - we were busy, busy, busy!" exclaimed Evie, House Captain for Salus. The budding tycoons are shown in the gallery below. The business made some great links with local firms like Aspire People based in Sutton Coldfield, who have kindly teamed up with the Tycoons to help them get started and their ongoing supply chain. National Finalists!
We found out in July that our team had made the National Finals event at Hampton Court Palace, we were stunned and delighted that all our hard work had been recognised by the Foundation. We received this message along with an invitation to the event:
"After an incredibly challenging year for schools and businesses, we had a fantastic engagement of 400+ student businesses go head-to-head, to start their own business and trade in 2020/2021. Ten teams stood out amongst all entries taking part in the competition from across the UK. The budding young tycoons received start-up loans from the Peter Jones Foundation for Enterprise, and all turned a great profit during the competition. In total, over one thousand high-calibre students received funding to start their businesses. This year, businesses spanned from homemade soaps and personalised necklaces to website designing and facemasks."
The result was that our business; Fun to Last a Lifetime, was the national runner-up to the overall winners of the competition! At the finals event we were first up on stage to pitch to Peter Jones and take questions and even though we were nervous we were confident and proud of our achievement. What a day! See the gallery below for photographs of our business journey.
About Tycoon in Schools
The Tycoon Enterprise Competition is a free national enterprise competition, which aims to encourage the UK’s budding entrepreneurs to get involved in business by giving them a start-up loan of between £50 and £1000 to run a business whilst at school or college.
Launched in 2012 by Peter Jones CBE and supported by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills and referenced in Lord Young’s ‘Enterprise For All’ review, Tycoon in Schools was developed as a direct response to repeated calls for a national enterprise challenge in schools. The competition allows students to start and run a business whilst at school or college, thereby allowing them to gain valuable hands-on experience of what is involved with running a business.
