Thornlow Discovers 12 Young Entrepreneurs!

Thornlow Preparatory School can boldly state that they may have discovered the next “Young Entrepreneur of the Year”!  It would be a tough decision having to select who would actually achieve such an accolade, as every entrepreneur facing the panel of “Dragons” in the “Dragons Den” deserved recognition for their creativity, passion and enthusiasm!

Thornlow has been trialling a new year 7-8 business course this year, written and delivered by Mrs Lucy Clarke, who, before moving into education, has 14 years of business experience from Asda, Mars UK Ltd & R. Twinings Ltd. 

"Krazy Cardz" and "Bags4u" have spent their Spring Term working up a potential business idea covering all aspects of business - from finance to marketing, production to sales.  The 25th March witnessed the year 7-8 pupils present their business idea to a panel of local businessmen who were invited to sit on a "Dragons Den" panel, so named after the popular BBC television programme.  The panel comprised of Simon Jacobs, divisional director at  “Brewin Dolphin”, Edward Warr who set up “Cartridge Zone Ltd” and Simon Meers who established “Cove Yacht Brokerage”, Simon was formally CEO of a contact lens company employing over 700 people.  Sadly, Jackie Page from “Printing & Packaging Ltd” was unable to make the event, however, Jackie has decided to invest in “Bags4u” and was represented by co-Dragon Simon Jacobs.  The Dragons Den was covered by The Dorset Echo so the event was not for the faint hearted and all presenters on the day should be proud of their achievements, its not easy to present to so many unfamiliar faces.

Krazy Cardz are planning to launch up to 4 postcards under the banner of "My Weymouth".  The Krazy Cardz business plan involves launching an in-school competition asking all the children at Thornlow to draw images of Weymouth. The winning  4 designs will be turned into postcards - an incredibly unique idea considering there are no other postcards like them in Weymouth! 

Having successfully presented their business idea in the “Dragons Den”, Krazy Cardz were pleased to leave with the backing of local businessman Edward Warr from "Cartridge Zone".  Edward has agreed to print all the children’s postcards at a heavily discounted price, in return for the children recycling cartridges for his business, if you therefore have any computer or printer cartridges that you would like to recycle please drop them into the cartridge bins in the school, the more the yr 7-8s can recycle the more profit they can make! 

Great negotiation skills Krazy Cardz, welldone - now all we need are cartridges and people to buy the 35p postcards – what a bargain!

"Bags4U" are capitalising on the environmental friendly trend in cotton bags and propose to run a competition in the school for each pupil to design a logo or image of Weymouth which will be printed on a cotton bag.  "Printing & Packaging Ltd" in Southampton have agreed to support the project by way of donating an initial run of 50 free bags for the children, this will be in return for a further order of 250 bags at a discounted rate.  Bags4u will be launching their environmentally friendly cotton bag at the bargain price of £1.50 and should you be interested in purchasing one you will be able to place an order within the next couple of months!  Bags4u are also looking for a local business sponsor who may wish to have their logo printed on their bags in return for a contribution to the bag’s cost price.  Therefore, if you would be interested in some cost effective advertising then please contact us!

A wonderful twist came when the bar was raised by Simon Jacobs from Brewin Dolphin.  Simon offered an additional prize to the business unit which goes on to sell the greatest % over their estimated business profit, now this is a real competition - just as we witness in the real business world!

The entire school seemed extremely excited about the Dragons Den event with posters and the transformation of the hall playing a big part.  Thank you to the Dragons and all involved in making the event happen, a special thank you must go to Mr & Mrs Tang who kindly loaned us their Chinese lion to help create an impactful atmosphere on the day.

Krazy Cardz comprises Betty, Mikey, Liam, Effron, Danielle & Alexander

Bags4u comprises Kyle, Curtis, Lucy, Jed, Fionn, Olivia

Products will be launched during the summer term with all profits being donated to a charity chosen by the entrepreneurs.

If you are interested in purchasing any of the products then please contact the school office for details.  If you are a potential bag sponsor then Bags4u would love to hear from you and if you have any used cartridges then Krazy Cardz would love them – simply pop them into the recycling cartridge bins you will see in school!

The Thornlow's Dragons Den is certainly a unique school project and therefore we hope that you value the energy and passion that has been invested by Thornlow’s young entrepreneurs: 12 inspirational people who will undoubtedly go on to prove that they are the business men and women of the future!