As part of our ongoing centenary celebrations, we organised a Young Entrepreneur Day, run in a Dragon’s Den-style, for our pupils in the Remove to Upper Fourth. The day was launched with an inspiring talk by Alice Worley (DH 2009), who shared her career journey and insights into her current role as an Ecommerce Lead at TikTok. Then, Miss Eaves (Assistant Head, Lower School) explained that all pupils involved would be split into teams and challenged with the task to create a new business. The pupils focused on creating a sustainable fashion brand by designing merchandise and creating a video advert. They were provided with blank t-shirts, canvas trainers and tote bags to design, along with a basket full of goodies to help them personalise their items.

The pupils nominated a Team Leader and assigned themselves roles. It was highly impressive to see them collaborate so well. In a very short space of time they thought about and decided upon:

• their budgets
• how to make their products sustainable
• how to market themselves including producing a 30 second advert
• the design and creation of their products plus a logo

We were so lucky to be joined by alumnae, parents and local business experts who spent time with each group offering them advice and challenging the teams on their decisions.

The day culminated in a Dragon’s Den-style event where each team pitched to our Dragons. The teams produced polished and articulate pitches. Thank you to all our Dragons, and a huge well done to the girls for their hard work and brilliant pitches. Thanks must also go to our CCA department for organising such an engaging day to show our pupils what is involved in starting up your own business.

I couldn’t have been prouder of what the girls produced, they showed such innovation and it was a joy to watch them all work so collaboratively, with the UIV showing great leadership skills to the younger years.

– Mrs Hannah Pilgrim, Head of Co-Curricular Activities