This year, our entrepreneurial project focused on making products to sell at The Cotswold Show, which took place the weekend following Enrichment Week in neighbouring Cirencester Park. Our thanks go to The Bathurst Estate for supporting our charity stall.

Pupils had to think about their target market and were involved in every aspect of production. While many initially honed their craft skills in after school workshop sessions leading up to the event, others engaged in ‘shop fitting’ and helped set up the school’s stall on Friday 6 July or keenly volunteered and generously gave up their time at the weekend to personally staff the stall.

Throughout Enrichment Week (2-6 July 2018), pupils participated in a range of intensive workshops. They worked collaboratively in teams with the support of staff to make an impressive range of cards, gifts and dog biscuits. They acquired and developed new skills and many taking part used their initiative and demonstrated their creativity. They had the opportunity to work with different materials including leather and clay. They showed themselves to be resilient and resourceful as many of the products were upcycled from found materials such as jars, fabric scraps, cardboard and even old slates.

Pupils also learnt about how a business works. We talked about our production costs and profit margins. The pupils reflected on their work at the end of each day and, as the volume of stock increased, they nominated the charities they wished to support:

At The Cotswold Show, visitors to our stall complimented the team on the quality of the products for sale and on the very professional way in which the stall was put together. Like Alan Sugar’s apprentices, our pupil assistants gained valuable experience in customer service and tempted visitors to the show into our tent with free samples of dog biscuits for their pets! Alongside the dog biscuits, popular sales included the greetings cards, key rings, peg fridge magnets, chalkboards, ceramic garden creatures and spray painted slates.

Over the weekend our stall was next to Cirencester Male Voice Choir, who are actively recruiting new members and they would be very keen to hear from anyone interested in joining their friendly group. On the other side of our tent was LG Agility Training and we were impressed by the displays done by her team and the dogs in the arena opposite us.

After an intensive week, two very hot days and in response to the curiosity of participating pupils, we are very pleased to report that we took over £750 at The Cotswold Show and, the total will continue to rise as the #CDPSenterprise group plan to continue to sell their wares in Reception and at school events.

This free project within our Enrichment Week programme was very inclusive and the experience was particularly rewarding for all pupils who took part.

‘I am extremely grateful to the team of staff who led or supported the workshop sessions and inspired our pupils to make so many saleable goods. They, and all of the pupils who took part, are to be commended on their efforts and all should be very proud of their achievements. It was a privilege to represent the school and our pupils at such a prestigious local event.’

Chiquita Henson, Headteacher