July 20th, 2007
The hustle and bustle of a busy stock market trading floor was created during this year’s Year 9 Enterprise Days. Students were taking part in the Stock Market Challenge, a computer simulation of a week in the stock market. Students worked in teams and were expected to buy and sell shares in fictional companies whilst reacting to key news events appearing on a newsfeed projected onto the wall.
The brown gym was soon transformed into a hive of activity with hundreds of share trades going on across the hall. A sudden hush fell across the room each time a news reel appeared and the pupils were eager to assess the impact on company share prices and the impact on their overall portfolio. All teams made a profit, demonstrating a good awareness of how to deal in a volatile market. The winning team made well over £65,000, an increase on their initial investment of over 300 per cent. Eleanor said “It was really exciting watching the prices go up and down!”
The second part of this exciting event featured Terror Tower building. Students had to use their design skills and creativity to design a Tower that could hold at least 100g in weight. Students also had to buy their resources carefully, considering the amount of materials they needed and balancing this against the need to make a profit on their Tower. Students’ designs varied from being very intricate to simple Towers that held the maximum weight. Points were awarded for height, design and the weight that each Tower could bare. On one of the days the winning team made well over £6.5 million in profit for their Tower. Greg Mussell featured in the winning team on Wednesday and said “Our tower was the best! It had a good design and we all worked together to build it.”
Overall the days were thoroughly enjoyed by both staff and students. Pupils were able to enhance their enterprise skills as well as teambuilding, all skills that prospective employers seek when recruiting new employees.