Well here goes, my own blog to write about my SEQ experiences working with a variety of learners on Portland and the surrounding area.

My first moderation experience was with a very mixed ability year 10 group at what was then Royal Manor Arts College on Portland now IPACA (Island of Portland Aldridge Academy); a group of around 10 students worked on the bronze course. What was exiting was seeing them plan an enterprise trying to raise funding for a cause they had decided on and cared about personally. I believe the enterprise element was important in motivating them and through the experience of delivering to them I now prefer to introduce the enterprise first so as to get young people hooked on something practical that they can take ownership of.

For enterprise purposes they decided to split into two groups and were tasked with setting up an enterprise on a budget of £20:

Group one created a set of five post cards of our local area and sold them to raise money for cancer research. They did everything including recruiting a fellow student not on the course to take the photos. The photos were then printed and sold making a profit of around £23 in a relatively short apace of time.

Group two spent some time trying out various ideas to raise money to donate to diabetes research including approaching the national society. In the end they exploited an opportunity that came their way because of the diamond jubilee. The school was hosting an afternoon of ‘wacky races’ and because it had been arranged at relatively short notice they needed someone to provide refreshments. The idea of selling jelly and ice cream to raise money for diabetes might seem strange but they certainly spotted a need as they made a profit of over £25 in around an hour selling their product at 25p for a plastic cup full. In the end they were just selling jelly as they ran out of ice cream.

They researched Jamie Oliver’s Fifteen restaurant and the Eden project among others as part of their work being two well known social enterprises relatively local to us. Whilst researching their favourite products I have to say I learnt loads about well known items and their production including mobile phones and music players, some of it was truly eye opening!

They were an interesting group to work with as I think it would be true to say they were a little bit wary of this ‘unknown’ course but they enjoyed organising their enterprise, learnt loads about taking responsibility for their  work, basic business organisation and in the end lessons were pleasant and quite social.