Blackwood Primary School: Fair Trade Coffee Shop
This is what Blackwood pupils said about being involved in the experience of setting up a Fairtrade coffee shop.
Cameron Hodges: “In the future we are going to need to know how to handle finances and find good deals so we don’t get ripped off. It will helps our life skills, it can help us get a job.”
Bailey Vokes: “ If you want to become an entrepreneur or start your own business then this is a great start. It taught me how to handle money, be persuasive, how to handle people, how to be firm and fair, think twice before you make a big decision.”
“It kept me occupied and thinking about how I could make lots of money, rather than play my games console. I knew I wanted to adopt an animal so it motivated me to do even better.”
Carly Potter: “ It helped me to develop my key skills such communication, number and problem solving skills. There were quite a few problems, but working together we were able to solve them.”
Shannon Morgan: “It helped me to be more confident and show people that just because we’re young it doesn’t mean we can’t make a successful business. I feel very proud of myself.”
Grace Bagshaw: “We had a class discussion about different ideas, but I thought it would be an inspirational idea to do a coffee shop. I also thought we could use all our Edward de Bono Thinking Hats to make this work. It made us think about certain things that didn’t usually think about. We thought about grown up things like: money wise, being polite to customers, being really really confident and smile at people. You have to over come your nerves and just do it. You learn about money and how to spent it wisely. You can’t just think oh I’ll buy that because you have to make a profit.
It was a superb opportunity for people. I loved that and I think we should encourage children to run a business. You can’t be all fancy if it costs a lot you need to think of the money. You need a limit, a budget. Always encourage team members to be firm but not bossy. You need to be firm in giving people special important jobs. It’s all about the teamwork. There’s no I in team!!”
