November 24, 2020January 26, 2021 by Dr Felicity Healey-Benson

EntreCompEdu Pioneer School ‘Into Action’ for GEW2020

Embracing its EntreCompEdu Pioneer school status, Dafen Primary showcased its growing entrepreneurial vison and competences in Global Entrepreneurship Week (GEW2020 : 16-20 Nov).

Their EntreCompEdu online graduation is a pleasant summer memory, but the staff at Dafen Primary School, not resting on their laurels, have leapt into action to embed their enhanced entrepreneurial principles and practices. This Autumn term, the Dafen team have taken school-wide entrepreneurship vision and learner competence development to new heights.

An entrepreneurship cross-curricula extravaganza delivered to celebrate Global Entrepreneurship Week at Dafen School shone a light on the concrete transferability of the entrecomp framework in supporting the new Curriculum for Wales – developing enterprising, creative contributors, ready to play a full part in life and work.

For GEW2020, Dafen Primary embraced a breadth of exciting activities and projects that amplified the fact entrepreneurial concepts, competences and language can be confidently articulated throughout all learning environments and age-groups in school. Sustainability was their selected theme for a further conjoined affair.

Boxes of old CDs destined for the bin were the recyclable material of choice for the youngest learners. A series of tests carried out by the nursery children, to work through the properties of the CD and what could be successfully used to decorate them, fuelled curiosity and experimentation. Collaborative building with loose parts gathered from boxes of junk led to further creative exploration and inquiry. An additional opportunity for perseverance and grit as the children problems-solved their way through the construction of the new decoration. A young team that now delight in being able to watch and reflect on their beautiful decorative light-catchers, as they twinkle in the sunlight.

The Foundation Phase set up a business to raise money for classroom resources. Inspired by the story ”The Squink” and a concern for the welfare of birdlife in their school swale, they voted upon the design and creation of bird feeders. Having spotted a full bin of empty plastic milk containers, they set about repurposing their use to create value for both themselves and their local bird community. Experimenting with bird mix recipes and production approaches, they worked through many entrepreneurial competences, including costing and pricing their bird feeders. They also worked on advertising strategies making use of digital books and social media.

Pupils of the Foundation Phase also committed to a sustainable production project – recycled paper production. As well as experimentation with process efficiency and paper quality, the group explored the wider value and benefits of recycling.

Following a jamboard session to ideate and work together, the younger juniors also sprang into action with their very timely face mask project. 100% bespoke designs using recycled materials A clear package of spotting opportunities, developing ideas, planning skills, an awareness of limited resources and lots of collaborative learning.

An evaluation of collaborative ideas-sharing, the higher juniors contributed to entrepreneurial fever with their bespoke sustainable bunting. A joyful environmentally-friendly product to send to the local nursing home to brighten up their days.

There was also a project to upcycle old t-shirts into an incredible creative range of bags, which drew on all manner of “Ideas and opportunities”, ”Resources” and ”Into action” competences.

What is very clear from the hive of activity this GEW2020 is that entrepreneurial skills are not just fun to develop, but help pupils develop creative ideas that can solve local problems in better ways, and support with the skills development to turn those ideas into action. Curiosity, goal-setting, time management, financial planning, teamwork, motivation and perseverance – just a snapshot of the skills developed and honed this week.

Da iawn bawb – to both the staff and the pupil for all your hard work and outputs, creating and sharing value with others.
Congratulations also to Dafen Primary School on showcasing some of the practice from your EntreCompEdu training. Keep up the fantastic work.

Thanks go to
Mrs Greville (Head Teacher) and the EntreCompEdu School Pioneers:
Michelle Davies, Louise Fallon, Sarah James, Sheree Littler, Deborah Morgans, Faith Muldoon, Sarah Phillips, Shelley Rees, Tracey Singleton, Claire Watkeys, and Karen Weeds.

*All collated photos have the correct permissions, and supplied by the school.

https://entrecompedu.eu/blog.php

EntreCompEdu is a muti-country project of which the University of Wales Trinity St. David is a lead partner.

Report by Felicity Healey-Benson of UWTSD, Lead EntreCompEdu Teacher Pioneer for Wales,