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 Business & Enterprise

 

Here at Whitcliffe Mount we are very keen to develop links with our wider business community. We believe we can develop mutually beneficial relationships with local businesses and community which have the primary focus of enriching our students potential at its heart.

We would love to hear from you if you or your business is able to offer any of the following:

  • Work Placement opportunities – this involves upto 2 weeks per year for all our year 10 students.
  • Business visits – we appreciate we are a large school and visits en mass is very difficult, however, we are always looking for opportunities to take smaller groups of students, sometimes as little as 5 or 10 students into a business environment to witness first hand the wider working community.
  • Guest Speaker – we would welcome experienced business people, either self starting entrepreneurs or those who work for organisations, who would be able to be able to present to our students on different topics to help them understand their own business potential.
  • Sponsorship – we are always looking for generous sponsors to help fund resources in our school which is always used for the development of our students potential.
  • Mentoring – becoming a mentor to some of our aspiring students to help them develop into the business leaders of tomorrow.
  • Mock Interviews – these are vital in preparing tomorrows workforce. Young adults are often accused of leaving school ill-equipped to deal with the real workplace, we aim to make this a thing of the past for our students.

Apart from the obvious benefits of being involved in shaping tomorrows workforce today and helping to make a positive difference to a young person’s levels of aspiration and confidence, becoming a link business will also help to raise your profile within the community. A mention in our school magazine which is distributed to over 1,000 local families. We also offer a delicious free school lunch.

If you are interested in developing links with our school, please contact Mrs Jo Ford, Business & Enterprise Manager fordjo@whitcliffemount.co.uk or on 01274 335182.

 

 Business Links

 

Business and Enterprise at Whitcliffe is embedded into every lesson we teach. It is also prevalent in the one off and annual events. Some of the annual events we run include:

Summer Enterprise Day
A drop down day where all students are off timetable to participate in a whole school enterprise activity. Previous years have included, designing an Olympic village, market stalls, a Victorian funfair and World cup countries. This is usually a wonderful day and it is one of the best remembered by leaving students with thanks to our hard working staff we have often been able to create spectacular events full of fun, learning and celebration.

Dragons Den
Whitcliffe has run a dragons den challenge to all our feeder middle schools for the last 4 years, each year the business proposals have become more and more ingenious and realistic. As we now approach a change to become an 11 – 16 school we are throwing down the gauntlet to all our feeder primary schools and look forward to many hotly contested competitions to come.

Global Enterprise Week
We have participated in this since its infancy in 2008, every November, in addition to the enterprise focus in all lessons students are given an additional challenge to further raise their awareness, not only of enterprise, but also of their own potential.

Anti Bullying Week
In a twist of fate Anti-bullying week usually coincides with Global Enterprise Week, we aim to integrate both focus’ into our lesson planning and often challenge our students to make that difference in recognising all our differences and creating new and innovative approaches to prevent bullying becoming established in our school and their social environment.

Make Your Mark Challenge
We have entered this every year since 2008 and have reached the finals. It is usually an initial one day timed challenge issued to students. They often have had to create a product and business in one day, outlining all the features and benefits, creating financial planning, marketing strategies and contingency planning. A great challenge which has proved enlightening and of great benefit to those who enter.

March Enterprise Focus
We reintroduce a focus on enterprise again in March, activities here range from in lesson activities to guest speakers or trainers. Amongst others we have had the pleasure to welcome Barclays Bank, Trading Standards, Youth Health Workers and a variety of prominent local business people. (If you would be interested in developing a business link with the school, please visit our ***Business link*** page for further details.

Induction Days
Every year we look forward to welcoming our new students to our school. As part of their induction experience and in order to help them meet and forge new friendships we offer a range of enterprise activities, where the students get a hands on active session designing and creating merchandise we then donate to charity. Projects have included shoes for our partner school in Ghana, t-shirts, hats and bags to highlight the environmental impact of the BP oil disaster and catastrophic effects of the Asian Tsunami.

 

 Wider Links With Our Local Community.

 

An ICT club has been running for more than 5 years. This has been a free to attend course which was offered to older members of our community. We taught basic word processing, spreadsheets and web page navigation. We were also able to provide help and support to anyone who runs their own community projects with guidance on maintaining computer records. Unfortunately we have temporarily closed the club as the school enters its final stages of reorganisation, however if you are interested in joining the club in the future, please contact thompsonj@whitcliffemount.co.uk or call on 01535 645693.

We have run community trips for the local turnsteads residents association to Harrogate and York and have provided a community evening hosted in our main hall.

This year saw our first community Christmas stall, selling artwork produced by students, a successful venture which has led to further events planned for the future.

We are currently in the process of establishing Whitcliffe radio, a new venture involving some of our year 10 students. If you believe you would be able to offer free support or assistance, please contact in the first instance Matthew Whiteley at whiteleym@whitcliffemount.co.uk or on 01274 335182

Community quiz night and a sponsored penalty shootout have also taken place to raise money for the development of West End Park.

 
 
 

 Photographs

 

Manchester AirPort Visit

Mock Trial


Enterprise Day