Junior Entrepreneur Programme in 5th Class
Our Journey Through Junior Entrepreneur
We the girls from 5th Class, Mercy Primary School, Birr, have been working extremely hard participating in the Junior Entrepreneur Programme. The Junior Entrepreneur Programme is a seven step journey which allows primary students to have the opportunity to become an entrepreneur.
To begin our journey, we found out what an entrepreneur really is. An entrepreneur is a person who uses initiative to meet a need by creating a product or service.
During the next step our class was split into 4 separate groups. Each group came up with a different idea of a product that we thought would sell well. The four product names were: Mercy Mugs; Stationary Nationary; Sign Design and Fantastic Frames.
In step 3 we prepared to meet “The Dragons” who would decide which product we would be selling. Each group presented their idea to the Dragons, who had the difficult decision of choosing the big idea for our class. “Sign Design” was chosen as our big idea. The Dragons were, Mrs. Caroline Boyd from The Stables, Birr, Mrs. Kennedy, 6th Class Teacher and Mrs. Hanamy our School Principal.
During the next exciting step, we welcomed our business visitor, Elaine Keogh to our classroom. Elaine is a successful milliner and was awarded Milliner of the Year 2016. Elaine has made hats for Lady Gaga and has taken part in London Fashion Week. She was very inspirational and we learned so much.
Next we did market research to find out would our idea work. We gathered opinions and information from several students and teachers.
In the next step our class very carefully chose our roles and responsibilities. We picked key areas that we felt we would be good at and split into 5 teams. The teams were: the sales team; the design and
production team; the finance team; the marketing team and the storytellers.
Our big showcase was on Friday 10th March where we gave our customers their pre-ordered signs, created signs and had a successful cake sale. The storytellers put together a slideshow and made a storyboard on the wall explaining our Journey through Junior Entrepreneur. It was a very successful day.
We would like to thank our amazing teacher, Mrs. Fitzgerald and our outstanding principal, Mrs. Hanamy for allowing us to have this amazing opportunity.
By Róisín Riley and Niamh Coughlan, 5th Class, Mercy Primary School, Birr.
