Young Enterprise Success
Young Enterprise is a national charity which specialises in enterprise education and financial education. It works directly with young people, teachers, volunteers and influencers to build a successful and sustainable future for all young people. One way it does this is through its student company programme which is aimed at students aged 15-19. These students are required to set up and run their own business with financial and decision making responsibilities. There is the option to compete against other schools across each county which progresses into a national then international competition if successful at the previous stage.
For the academic year of 2019-2020, Presdales competed with two teams; Parcel the Love and Hidden Treasure made up of students that were then in year twelve.
Parcel the Love started off with around fifteen company members however was soon cut down to just two members, Sofia Gibbins and Leanna Rhodes. Sofia acted as managing director, also taking responsibility for company finance, and Leanna, being the more creative individual, was responsible for the logo design as well as promotional and marketing activities. In the early stages of the business, it became clear that the overall objective was to share kindness and love therefore the idea of creating ready-made packages for special occasions came about. The boxes would make gift-giving stress free and simple but also allowed people to ‘pass all the love’ – understand the name now?!
The second company, Hidden Treasure, was most definitely a larger company, composed of 10 members and directed by Connie Marshall. It produced upcycled accessories such as earrings with the main goals of informing consumers of the dangers of fast fashion and the increasing amount of pollution created from it. To demonstrate this, the trade stand created by Hidden Treasure had various, shocking but real, photos of rivers swarmed with clothing and fabric dyes.
A major event that both businesses had to attend was Ware Dickensian Evening in December 2019 where both teams had to sell their product to the general public in the street. It was an incredibly cold night however there was triumph for both teams as sales were made, Parcel the Love achieved an award for best teamwork and Hidden Treasure won best trade stand.
A ten-page report had to be submitted by each team towards the end of the academic year, explaining various parts of the company including team journey, financial results, impact and legacy which was then judged by a panel of business experts and representatives of Young Enterprise. Unfortunately, neither of the teams from Presdales were the overall winning student company from Hertfordshire however Parcel the Love won Best Teamwork and Best Customer Service out of all the schools competing in Hertfordshire.
The students incorporated in the Young Enterprise programme at Presdales were very fortunate to work with Gill Thornton and Corrina Hartwig-Green as their business advisors who very generously gave up their own time to attend company meetings and external events such as Dickensian Evening. We thank them for their time and expertise!
It must be said that the Student Company Programme was an eye opening experience that greatly benefited us students. The students currently studying A Level business or economics were able to apply content from their lessons into a real life example and those students not studying these subjects were able to get a glimpse into the world of employment and business.
A massive thank you on behalf of the students goes to Mr Rock for organising this opportunity, Presdales for funding our start up fees, Gill and Corrina for their time and of course Young Enterprise for introducing this scheme.
Written by Sofia L Gibbins
CEO of Parcel the Love
Handmade Christmas Cards
Over the last two weeks all members of 8EF have been creating handmade Christmas cards for elderly/vulnerable people living in the local community as well as local care homes. The local care homes were contacted in advance to ensure they were happy to receive gifts/cards at this time. Once we knew where each of the cards were going, the girls wrote some kind messages inside each of the cards, ready for them to be delivered. One of the parents, Ms Shellie Pain, very kindly donated a hamper and bouquet of flowers to go alongside the cards for the care homes. Some members of 8EF delivered individual cards to their elderly neighbours in the community. Sienna Pain, Neive Reid and Eloise Cooper then delivered the gifts and cards to the doorsteps of three local care homes after school on Wednesday 9th December. The care homes which received cards/gifts were Camellia House Care Home, Riverside Place and Ashwood Runwood Homes who were all extremely grateful. The care home staff were lost for words, they took the names of the girls who delivered the gifts and said they would be writing letters of thanks.
Well done 8EF for sharing your kindness and Christmas cheer to those who have had an extremely tough year!
Miss Fentiman
‘Hug in the post’
Students from years 7 and 8 were asked to make Christmas cards to support the U3A Charity who wanted to send a ‘Hug in the post’ to the elderly and lonely living in Ware. Here are some of 7VW making their cards which will now be distributed to members of our community this Christmas.
Charity and Fundraising at Presdales School
Presdales School has always considered charity to be an important concept for our students to understand. Annually Presdales raises money for a nominated charity proposed and voted for by students and staff. Other national activities such as MacMillan Coffee Morning and The Poppy Appeal are also supported. Presdales believes that it is important to encourage our students to focus their good work outwards and we have witnessed fantastic independent examples of generosity from our students and their families this year, supporting those in need.
Presdales is supported by an excellent volunteer PA team, which provides invaluable help at key events. These include the annual: Dance Evening, Presdales Rocks and the Drama Production and the Christmas Bazaar. Funds from these events help us to purchase those things that budgets don’t stretch to and these funds will be sorely missed this year.
As a school we find areas where budgets do not extend to cover the cost of new or replacement equipment to be increasing and like everyone have been impacted through Covid 19 with annual activities unable to happen and new ways of working requiring new or different equipment. Seeking external funding from official grants is more important than ever and this receives active focus.
It is in this regard that we would like to mention and offer our sincere thanks to local charity EdufundUK Ltd for their recent support for our grant applications. The team at Edufund launched their charitable work with Hertfordshire schools in 2018. Presdales has received grant support from the very beginning in the areas of STEM, PE and Effective Learning with the purchase of diverse equipment for a 3-D Printer to an egg hatching kit.
Following three recent applications Edufund have supported us once again with grants for four new sewing machines and a class set of dressmaking dummies. This is of great significance to Presdales with student numbers in Textiles Tech increasing and ours being the only school in the local area to offer the subject at A-Level.
Additionally due to letting restrictions due to Covid 19 our PE department recently lost access to equipment it shared with one of our letting customers. Once again Edufund understood our plight and responded to a grant application to support the purchase of two new gymnastic floor rolls with the balance coming from the Dance Evening fund.
We would also like to offer one last note of thanks to Edufund. Presdales School was granted the major STEM grant in 2019, which included funds for the purchase of 25 visualisers. Who knew just how important they would be – they are making such a positive impact on remote teaching.
SMSC Activity
A recent SMSC activity set by the English Department was to “Create a poem representing your form’s vision of a future without COVID”. Here is 8JC’s poem, special recognition goes to Madison Scully who managed to write all their ideas into this lovely poem.
Vision for the future
By 8JC
I see a future that is full of life
Free of masks when we can get back to doing normal tasks
And without anxiety and fear
Full of happiness and cheer
And friends and family for the rest of our years
I see a future that is full of light
Free of darkness, where everything seems bright
And without us staying a metre away
Full of freedom and normal days
And to think we were all locked up back in May
I see a future that is crystal clear
Free of cases for over a year
And without worrying to be clean all the time
Full of joy that makes us shine
And love that lasts for a lifetime
I see a future that is ever closer now
Free of worry when we don’t know how
And without COVID to spoil the fun
Full of laughter
And all of this is over and done
News from Geography
Presdales Tropical Rainforest Bugs
This half term, Year 8 Geographers have used their knowledge of tropical rainforest conditions and how animals have adapted, to design and make their own rainforest bugs that they think will survive the best. Well done everyone!
News from Design & Technology : Product Design
Year 12
The Year 12 Product Design students were extremely busy last term working on their Lamp Projects. We are extremely proud of all of the students work, and the effort and time that went into them. They were set a brief back in June, when they commenced their Year 11 into 12 bridging work, to design and make a table lamp. We feel the variety of materials, manufacturing processes and styles are quite inspired and their design sheets support their thinking and development of their designs. We now move onto theory which should build on their knowledge from GCSE and apply this in January when we begin the Architectural Model project. Well done Year 12!!
Latest News
Coming Up
Monday 25th and Wednesday 27th :
Year 9 Virtual Parents Consultation Meetings
Contact Us
Presdales School
Hoe Lane
Ware
Hertfordshire
SG12 9NX
Tel: 01920 462210
admin@presdales.herts.sch.uk