Exeter students' business challenge seems them turn £80 into over £300!

Around 60 Year 9 students at West Exe School, part of theTed Wragg Multi-Academy Trust, have taken part in an enterprise market at the school this month.  

The market is the culmination of the £5 enterprise challenge, those taking part conducted market research, visited the market at Exeter Cathedral, then got to work on planning, pitching and promoting how they were going to use their £5 budget to create something to sell to other students.  Some intrepid students even sought wider investment to help boost their chances of success. 

The final market where students showcase their products is a much loved yearly event at the school and the whole project teaches those involved a sound understanding of business concepts.  A wide variety of festive goods were on offer from decorative wooden reindeer and reindeer cookies to waffles and popcorn bags.  

This year’s market was a huge success with many groups turning their £5 investment into over £30 of profit, one group even generated a whopping £72!  Overall they managed to turn an £80 investment into over £300. 

Julie Fossey, Headteacher at West Exe School said:  “I am so proud of each and every group, they demonstrated brilliant teamwork and problem-solving skills, along with a good serving of creativity.   They have all gained a sense of achievement  and success from taking part in the £5 enterprise challenge. 

"We will now spend the rest of the year building on this business experience, which in turn will help these children achieve excellent results and improve their life chances.” 

Moira Marder, CEO of the Ted Wragg Multi-Academy Trust said:  “I was delighted to hear about the success of the £5 enterprise market at West Exe.  The challenge is a great way to get children thinking about entrepreneurship and the fact that they managed to create such amazing levels of return on investment is very impressive!”