On Monday 17 November, former Portsmouth High School pupils Fleur and Abi Emery returned to school to launch enterprise week and tell the whole school about Team Grasshopper and their delicious porridge.
Enterprise week (17-23 November) is a national celebration of enterprise with thousands of events and activities happening across the UK. Last year there were over 5,000 events and more that half a million people took part!
This year, it will be the first ever Global Entrepreneurship week, a worldwide celebration of enterprise which aims to unleash young people’s enterprising ideas to address some of society’s biggest issues, from poverty reduction through to climate change. More that 60 other countries are signed up to take part, so Portsmouth High School will be joining thousands of organisations across the world in inspiring young people to develop their ideas on a global scale.
Fleur and Abi returned to school earlier this year and since then their business has flourished. Their entrepreneurial spirit and business acumen means that Team Grasshopper were winners of the Chamber of Commerce, Mentor Magic competition that took place on Thursday 13 November.
Fleur and Abi will be setting their own competition for PHS pupils to take part in during Enterprise Week and will be inspiring the girls to unlock their own enterprise potential and take over Grasshopper with business plans and creative ideas. The lucky winners will receive a supply of Team Grasshopper porridge.
“The business is a success because although we are sisters, we have very different talents” said Abi. “Fleur is the business brain and I am the creative source. We want to give the pupils a chance to tap into their talents, be it creative or business skills and help us to push Grasshopper towards exciting new challenges and ideas.”
Like Fleur and Abi the two competitions will be very different, one will involve pupils designing a new page for the Grasshopper website, the other will set the challenge of putting together a business plan for a new product to sell in the summer months. There will also be a competition for the girls in the Junior Department too.
Wednesday 19 November is Women’s Enterprise Day and our Year 9 pupils will be joined by girls from Wykeham House School to take part in an Enterprise Challenge; called The Island, designed and delivered by the University of Portsmouth Education Liaison Team.
Women’s Enterprise Day is all about celebrating successful female entrepreneurs and inspiring women and girls to turn their ideas into reality. ‘The Island’ doesn’t focus on traditional business enterprise but is instead a Social Enterprise project. Social Enterprise is a business with aims which are primarily social or environmental and whose surpluses are ploughed back into the business or community.
During the day pupils will work in teams to develop and grow their ideas and develop new ways of thinking. There will be prizes for the teams who show creativity, entrepreneurial spirit and teamwork. Above all the day will be fun, with the opportunity to develop teamwork, communication and leadership skills. The opportunity to express your creativity and entrepreneurial spirit and recognise that making money and having a positive social impact can go hand in hand.
ENDS
For more information contact Victoria O’Sullivan, Marketing Manager 023 9270 1617
Notes to Editors:
- Portsmouth High School is an independent girls’ school – part of the Girls’ Day School Trust - offering all-through education for over 600 girls aged 3-18. For more information visit www.gdst.net/portsmouthhigh
- The Girls’ Day School Trust (GDST) is the largest group of independent schools in the UK, with 3,500 staff and 19,000 students between the ages of three and 18. As a charity that owns and runs a family of 29 schools in England and Wales, it reinvests all its income into its schools for the benefit of the pupils.
- For more information about Team Grasshopper visit their website www.teamgrasshopper.co.uk