In the last weeks of the summer term Donna Wilson’s Year 12 Business groups took part in their own Dragons’ Den competition with stunning results!  Two other Business department tutors (Sarah Ratcliffe and Chris Stuttard) acted as the judges.  They were impressed by the detailed, professional pitches and the students’ considered and convincing replies to their follow up questions.  The students also made frighteningly good negotiators, thinking on their feet to adapt the terms of the investments to reach an agreement.  Similar conversations about homework deadlines have obviously honed those skills(!) but they were put to good use.  The judges were persuaded to invest in a luxury chocolate brand, a chemical free vitamin drink and in a subscription-based health and fitness programme.

This was the feedback from one of the student entrepreneurs:  The business proposal pitch was extremely beneficial to our learning. Creating a business start-up from scratch gave us a contextualised scope of the real business environment; conducting market research, identifying competitors and even creating a mock-up design for packaging allowed us to apply what we have learnt throughout the year and engagingly consolidate our knowledge. Furthermore, the professional atmosphere during the pitch meant we had to prepare to negotiate and answer any questions the judges could have had. (Dovydas Olekas).

Overall, the students’ efforts culminated in professional and convincing presentations, demonstrating not only their understanding of business concepts but also their ability to work as a team and think on their feet!  The experience has undoubtedly provided them with valuable skills that will benefit them in the future.  Thank you to Luca Alberio, Ali Almaghafi, Alexis Evangeline, Eloise Turner, Diyako Daneshvar and Dovydas Olekas for taking part and to the Business Studies tutors who supported the project.