Make Your Mark Blog

Enterprising students from Park View Community School in Chester-le-Street have been raising money for developing countries through the sale of t-shirts and babygros. They formed ‘Happy Earth Co’ and put a new twist on the slogan t-shirt. Buyers can show the world that their t-shirt has helped buy a goat for an African community or their tea towel has helped buy a well. They can even dress their new born in an ethical babygro!

The students have taken a simple and popular idea and have turned it into a great business with a conscience by using their enterprising skills.

The idea for the company was developed by students who wanted to provide help for developing countries around the world. The students say ‘We decided to produce something that would appeal to a wide range of people in order to make a larger contribution towards developing countries. The overall aim of this project was to produce something that would sell locally, however provide a vast contribution globally’

Happy Earth Co plan to expand their business from giving goats to helping farmers make honey, providing chickens for eggs and much more.  Not satisfied with conquering the North East market, the students plan to use existing connections with charities such as Oxfam and to build new connections to grow the business further.

If you would like to learn more about the business or if you have a school business idea of your own, please get in touch!

A man has left 17 camels to his 3 sons. He has left half the camels to his eldest son, a third to his middle son, and a ninth to his youngest. The 3 sons have been trying to divide up their inheritance but can’t find a solution that satisfies them all since 17 cannot be divided by 2, 3 or 9…

The sons need to consult an enterprising person to find a solution.

Could YOU use your enterprising skills and a little bit of maths to help out the sons with their problem?

Please send your ideas to julie@makeyourmark.org.uk

Pam and I recently attending the launch of the UK’s 100^th Careers Academy.

Prior Pursglove College in Guisborough recently will be home to the 100^th Careers Academy this coming September. The Careers Academy model encourages partnerships between employers and teachers, giving fantastic opportunities to students to experience the world of work while studying at college.

Employers can get involved by becoming guru lecturers, delivering workshops and hosting student visits. More information about getting involved is available on the Careers Academy website. Alternatively you can contact James Austin, UK Careers Academy Coordinator at Prior Pursglove College:  j.austin@prior.pursglove.ac.uk

Make Your Mark looks forward to supporting Prior Pursglove on its journey.

I’ve been asked a few times about how the Make Your Mark club links in with Every Child Matters. There are just some of the ways:

Be Healthy – The values of the Make Your Mark Club will reinforce a healthy and responsible approach to enterprise, and to life.

Stay safe – Make Your Mark Clubs encourage responsible networking, and provide a safe place for young people to go outside of lesson times at school.

Enjoy and achieve – Make Your Mark clubs develop enterprise skills and encourage young people to make ideas happen.  They will apply learning from across the curriculum and have the space to learn by doing.  Club activity focuses on the interests and ideas of its members, and rewards such as an annual certificate will acknowledge their achievement and contribution.

Make a positive contribution – Make Your Mark Clubs are about making ideas happen in a group context.  The ethos of a MYM Club places an emphasis on the importance of each member contributing, and using the skills, talents and passions of individuals to achieve common goals.  

Achieve economic well-being – Through Make Your Mark Clubs we aim to embed enterprise culture, helping young people to discover their own understanding of economic values, and giving them experience of running enterprises of their own.  Also, through networking and mentoring, members of the MYM Club have the opportunity to learn about different industries and opportunities in life after education.

To find out more about the Club, please visit:

www.makeyourmarkclub.org

If you are in the North East, you can contact your local Make Your Mark office on 01642 451826/ julie@makeyourmark.org.uk

Julie and Ann from Make Your Mark were invited to a wonderful event on Friday. It was a celebration event of enterprise in education. Fun packed and informative we came away with empty pockets and a smile on our faces! (But also wondering if we would sleep after reading ghost stories written and sold Chilton primary school children!!)

Primary and secondary schools from all corners of County Durham came along to showcase their achievements. Just a few of the activities we saw…..Gainford Primary School brought home made fudge to sell. Staindrop Business & Enterprise College sold jewellery and jewellery boxes. The Oaks brought along vegetables from their allotment. Park View showcased their social enterprise and raised enough money at the event to give a goat to Africa! Sunnydale students amazed up with their Mandarin! Fyndoune showed off the most gorgeous goats milk and lavender soap which was produced from the animals on their school farm! Parkside sold hand made cards for every occasion. Greenfield School took pictures of the event and sold them to participants (both as traditional photos and as key rings).  Wolsingham School and Community College showed off their invention which makes cleaning the floor quick and fun…. More to come on this in the next few days!!!!

Each school made a presentation on their projects to a panel of judges and the audience watched and voted on the top 3 (The Oaks, Park View and Parkside). It was a very hard choice as all three teams were articulate, creative and enthusiastic. Park View and their innovative social enterprise were victorious.

Pupils not only spent the day selling their produce/ services on market stalls and presenting but also took part in an Eco Challenge. They were given a box of materials and had just one hour to build a model of the ultimate eco friendly school. The standard of work was exceptional and I really didn’t envy the judges! The models included solar panels, windmills, farms and even integrated hydro electric power stations!!

Many thanks for Chris Carling, Enterprise in Education Advocate for inviting us along and to Chris, Lester, Jeanette and Sandra for making us very welcome.

Well done to all the students who took part and a warm welcome to our new members of the Make Your Mark Club. We can’t wait for the pictures of the day and look forward to writing more about our enterprising North East students!

A young man from Lowestoft has been chosen for the prime minister’s Global Fellowship - having found success during the Make Your Mark Challenge.

19 year-old Richard Miner from Lowestoft, is one of 100 young people chosen for the prime minister’s Global Fellowship - a programme designed to encourage and nurture oustanding talent and enterprise.

Depsite his obvious hard work and talent, Richard credits his success to the Make Your Mark team and his participation in the Make Your Mark Challenge whilst at school. During the challenge,  Richard and a group of friends established ‘UnHeard Entertainment’, a music management and PR company and as a result of their success, went on to attend the Make Your Mark in Music networking event in london, with Richard also becoming a founding member of YELP (Young Enterprising Lowestoft People) - a local network set up with the help of the local Make Your Mark team.

Richard says:  I believe strongly that getting on this chance of a lifetime, is in part due to the huge amount of support you and the whole Make Your Mark collective  gave myself and ‘UnHeard Entertainment’. It certainly allowed us to all become more knowledgeable about the ways of business and helped greatly in building a self-confidence in ourselves. The experiences that I have had due to ‘Unheard’ were priceless and I personally have a lot to owe you for those and the contacts made from Make Your Mark.”

As part of the fellowship programme, Richard is due to spend six weeks in India including two weeks in a school or college working as a language assistant and two weeks as the guest of a global company to get an understand of international business.

In November, Richard and the other fellowship members, will join the prime minister Gordon Brown to take part in ‘Global Entrepreneurship Week’ as part of the Make Your Mark campaign.

The Eastern Region Make Your Mark Team would like to congratulate Richard on this fantastic achievement and highlight how participating in Enterprise Week can really help young people to make their mark!

The students at Staindrop are not wasting any time when it comes to their careers. Hosting a ‘Careers in Action Day’, students got to grips with just what it takes to make their mark in the armed forces, catering and even teaching. With these students getting so clued up, their assault on the work place will be unstoppable.

Let’s hope we can keep up!

Make Your Mark was in Newcastle last week to talk to students about the importance of networking.

Pure Potential is the only independent organisation that helps tens of thousands of bright students from the state sector with their journey through UCAS forms, university life, student finance and career choices.

There were presentations on how to write personal statements, how to impress at interviews and how to budget.

Make Your Mark made a presentation to the students on the importance of networking. ‘Innocent Smoothies’ was discussed as a case study on the importance of networking. Did you know that the founders of the business decided to give up the traditional route to graduate careers and set up a smoothie making business? They were three young people with no money and therefore getting a new business off the ground looked like a tall order. So…they asked for help. They thought about their personal network, and got in touch with everyone they knew, asking for help with their business idea, and by contacting business contacts, family and friends they eventually met an investor who gave them the essential start-up cash they needed to make their idea happen.

The students at the Pure Potential event were encouraged to think about THEIR network of friends, family, neighbours.. and put a plan in place to start building it.

Three simple ways to make networking work:

Your Profile: Get known and make sure people remember you.

Good will: Create good will and people are more likely to support you.

Keep in touch: Network to build contacts – 80% of opportunities come from people you know!

Are you a student in the North East who wants to make their mark at school or college? Why not set up a Make Your Mark Club?

Contact Julie@makeyourmark.org.uk / 01642 451826 for more information.

Yesterday we hosted an event to unleash ideas for Enterprise Week 2008 at Beamish Hall. The day saw lots of networking amongst teachers, business people and those involved in enterprise delivery.

Pamela Hargreaves, Head of Campaign, welcomed our guests before Chris Spavin gave a presentation on Global Entrepreneurship Week and many of our guests shared ideas they have about how they plan to give Enterprise Week’s events an international flavour. Durham Community Business College are interested in ethical fashion. St Michael’s School in Billingham will be handing over Enterprise Week 2008 to the students who will be arranging events with an ethical twist. Staindrop Business and Enterprise College will be investigating why China’s economy is booming. Students will be looking at products that are made in China and investigating why they are made there. The students plan to visit China and go into a joint venture with a school there.

Tori James gave an inspirational speech. She was the first ever Welsh female to climb Mount Everest and shared the highs and lows of her adventure.

Tori also talked about Make Your Mark Clubs for schools and colleges. The Make Your Mark Club is for young enterprising people who want to make ideas happen while they’re at school or at college. It’s easy to run your own Make Your Mark Club and you can use this site to swap ideas or share information about your club. Want more information? Contact Julie@makeyourmark.org.uk / 01642 451826

Guests were then treated to 2 workshops……

One was delivered by Emma Farrell. This was all about Web Magic! She showed us how to utilise wikis, blogs, virals and other digital marketing techniques. Would you like to take a look at our twitter feed?

One was delivered by Phil Tulba. He showed us the exciting world of social enterprise. He explained what a social enterprise is and gave examples. We watched the ‘Trailblazers’ DVD. Copies of the Trailblazer’s magazine can be downloaded on line

Phil informed our guests about the One Water Challenge. This year, One Water and Make Your Mark have teamed up to launch the One Water Challenge for schools in the UK. Teams of schoolchildren (aged 14-19) will be given bottles of One Water and just one month in which to sell as many bottles as possible, in as innovative a way as possible. They could get them signed by a celebrity, or turn the bottle label into a piece of artwork, or sell them at school or at their parent’s workplace. The idea is to use all of their creativity and enterprise skills to sell One Water. After repaying the original cost of the water, what they do with the profit is up to them. They can keep it, invest it in more water, or even pursue another idea. Schools will be encouraged to sign up in September and bottles of water will be delivered to students for Social Enterprise Day (Thursday November 20, 2008) during Enterprise Week and Global Enterpreneurship Week. More information available at: http://www.enterpriseweek.org.uk/getinvolved/onewater

Guests could also take part in ‘Talkaoke’ – known as the ‘doughnut’ of chat, is a mobile chat show which invites participants to sit down and air their views around the Talkaoke table, as well as North East Bond’s Launch Pad which isdesigned to encourage all kinds of people to set up in business or to create a social enterprise.

Enterprise Week 2008 is fast approaching and our new site went live this week.

Download resources and presentations:

Social Media Presentation

Global Entrepreneurship Week Presentation

Web Magic

Enterprise Week 2008 overview - North East

Many thanks to One NorthEast, our speakers and our guests would made yesterday’s meet up a great success!

Are you a business person based in the North East? Would you like to help inspire the next generation of entrepreneurs?

Make Your Mark Enterprise Clubs are:

A dynamic network of student-led enterprise clubs, currently over 300 nationally, 35 of which are in the North East

Open to students in schools & colleges and are completely free

A great route into schools for employers and a great way to raise your own profile in TV and get positive PR

What the Make Your Mark Enterprise Clubs need from employers:

Real enterprise challenges from you e.g. design challenges or real business problems

Opportunities to talk to you and to learn from your business experiences & expertise

Support and guidance in planning their own business ventures

For you to inspire them about what is possible for them in their future

What’s in it for you?

A chance to

Work with young agile creative minds

Help develop the necessary skills in your future workforce

Raise the profile of your business

Generate lots of positive PR

Offer your staff self development opportunities

Market test some of your products with your potential customers

and …… an opportunity for you to be inspired by our young people!

If you would like to get involved, please contact Julie:

Julie@makeyourmark.org.uk / 01642 451826

We extend a warm welcome to our newest North East Make Your Mark Clubs…

Abbey Hill School & Technology College, Ashdale, Carmel RC Technology College, Conyers School, , Hartlepool Sixth Form College, Haydon Bridge High School, Hirst Park Middle School, Kings Academy School, Kings Manor School, Longfield Comprehensive School, Norton Humanities College, Pathways, Prior Pursglove, St Bede’s Catholic Comprehensive School, St David’s RC Technology College, St Hild’s Church of England, St Mary’s Catholic Comprehensive School, St Michael’s Roman Catholic VA Comprehensive School, St Peter’s Roman Catholic VA Comprehensive School, Thornaby Community School, English Martyrs, Bydales Comprehensive School & Unity City Academy.

These join Clubs in Berwick Community High School, Castle View School, Catcote School, Darlington Education Village, Epinay School, Ferryhill B&E College, Marden High School, Nunthorpe School, Park View Community School and Staindrop Business & Enterprise College and brings to current total in the North East to 33 and GROWING!

We look forward to hearing all about the enterprising activities these clubs are engaging in.

Interested in joining these North East schools and colleges? Please contact julie@makeyourmark.org.uk

There is still time to register to join us at a special North East event, exclusively for Enterprise Week event organisers , delivery partners and supporters of the campaign.

Date: Tuesday 1st July

Time: 12 noon - 3pm

Location: Beamish Hall Hotel, DH9 0YB

For more information, contact the Make Your Mark Team on 01642 451826

Its official…. we have a local meet up planned exclusively for North East Make Your Mark Clubs.

It takes place on September 29th , 0945am - 1230pm.

It is set to be THE networking event of the new school year. Places are limited, so please contact julie@makeyourmark.org.uk ASAP to book your places or for more information!

We have a summer time referral scheme, where teachers can win a prize!

To welcome our new Clubs and as a thank you to our existing Clubs, we are launching a competition exclusively for North East Make Your Mark Clubs!

Simply answer the following challenge:

What is YOUR school or college going to do to put it on the map during Enterprise Week 2008 and why should we launch Enterprise Week 2008 there?

Tips and tricks:

Ø Although the students in the Make Your Mark Club will be responsible for pulling all ideas together, why not get the whole school to contribute with suggestions?

Ø Get as many students involved as possible in your Enterprise Week event.

Ø Could you make use of any links you have with local businesses/ social enterprises/ community groups/ other schools?

Ø Show us which enterprise skills you could demonstrate/ develop during Enterprise Week.

Ø As a team, can you make use of your strengths and interests, and work them into your event?

Criteria for Entry:

Ø Your submission should be no more than 2 pages of A4 and can include photos, drawings and other additional materials to support your ideas.

Ø Your school or college must have registered for a Make Your Mark Club by the closing date.

Ø Please include details of where your event will take place, how many people will be in attendance and a contact name at your school or college.

Ø Highlight how your ideas support the message of Enterprise Week and which skills young people will learn during the activity.

Ø Your school must be taking part in the Make Your Mark Challenge on Monday 17^th November as this will be the feature of the launch of Enterprise Week.

Ø All students must have the relevant permission slips for photography/ PR.

Please submit your enterprising ideas to: julie@makeyourmark.org.uk

Deadline for submission: September 25th 2008

Prize:

Ø Enterprise Week 2008 for your sub region will be LAUNCHED at your school / college!

Ø £50 will be awarded to the winning Clubs to help bring their ideas to life during Enterprise Week.

Ø We will run special features on our website and in our communications on your plans for Enterprise Week and follow your Club as it turns ideas into reality.

We will have a winner from each of the four sub regions – Tees Valley, Durham, Tyne & Wear and Northumberland. Winners will be announced September 29th 2008.

Good luck!! Let’s make this year’s Enterprise Week the biggest and best yet!

Of course ALL schools and colleges are invited to get involved in Enterprise Week 2008 but this particular competition is open only to North East Make Your Mark Clubs!! If you don’t already have a club, it’s not too late to join! To set up a club or for more information, please contact julie@makeyourmark.org.uk / 01642 451826 / 07825 989005