Giving the Dragons’ Den entrepreneurs a run for their money! Oriel’s Year 4 create products as part of Enterprise project

The Enterprise topic, which runs throughout Summer 1 term each year, invites students across the school to explore a new business idea from start to finish.

As part of the No Limits Curriculum, unique to Aspirations Academies Trust, students are encouraged to use applied transdisciplinary learning (ATL) to their Enterprise topic into different subject areas.

Students explored the different phases of product development throughout the term before creating their final product.

This year in Year 4, the No Limits topic was ‘Welcome to Honeydukes’. Students were asked to consider the driving question of ‘how can we, as young wizards, create our own Honeydukes product?’ (Inspired by Harry Potter!)

The final product to be made was a chocolate frog.

Students in Year 4 worked in groups of 5 or 6 to master their chocolate frog product, with each group acting as a separate company to create a competitive environment. Each company was required to think of a company name, logo, product name and price.

In order to produce the best possible product, Year 4 students undertook a range of different new product processes: developing a brand, responding to a brief, research, prototype, marketing/advertising and funding.

In line with ATL, students explored various subject areas whilst undertaking these processes, including maths during the funding phase and art during the marketing/advertising phase. 

By the end of all 6 processes, students were left with what they thought to be the best version of a chocolate frog – their final product.

Chocolate frogs were either milk, dark or white chocolate and topped with either popping candy, silver balls, mini jazzies or unicorn sprinkles, depending on the market research results.

 

Typically, each year group would sell their final products in an Enterprise Fair at Oriel Academy. Due to the pandemic, this wasn’t possible this year, so order forms were sent home instead for parents/carers to order the products.

The Enterprise topic encompasses the No Limits Curriculum, which aims to prepare students with the knowledge and skills needed to succeed in the 21^st century. Chloe Butcher, Year 4 Teacher, said: “Enterprise is a hugely important part of our curriculum.

“It helps to develop the children’s sense of business and the future skills required for a successful business model, such as entrepreneurialism, collaboration, productivity and accountability.”

At the end of the Enterprise topic and when all product orders have been fulfilled, the most successful groups will be rewarded. In business terms, this group will be the one who turns over the most profit. However, class teachers will also pay attention for the groups who showed the best collaborative and team work skills throughout the project too.