‘The development of enterprise skills was a strong feature of the school and was prominent in the school’s planning as a school of ambition. The school’s transformational plan for this initiative was used as an exemplar for other Scottish schools’ HMIe (May 2008)

Enterprise continues to be at the heart of everything we do in school. Both pupils and staff get opportunities to develop their skills in a variety of ways and we set aside two days in the school calendar specifically to concentrate on developing ‘can do’ attitudes and skill development.

The idea for this type of event was initiated through discussions with the S6 council. Workshops and activities included: athletics, pottery, card-making, digital photography, Tae Kwon-do, golf, CSI, tennis, Spanish cookery, dog-handling, dance, study skills and team building.

One way in which we have successfully overtaken enterprise outcomes was to introduce Newman Enterprise Day in October 2005. This has now become an annual event which is held on the last day of ‘Newman Week’ The purpose of the day is to raise achievement, build self-confidence and enhance learning and teaching in all areas. This exciting initiative involves taking all staff and students off the formal timetable for the day and is devoted to ‘sharing gifts’. Staff, both teaching and non-teaching, are encouraged to move out of their ‘comfort zone’ and share a skill that is transferable and so enhance the learning experience of students.

The findings from the questionnaires collected in four consecutive years are collated analysed and presented using Excel. The data enabled us to find out the possible impact of the Newman Enterprise Day on the children participating over four consecutive years (2005 to 2008). Approximately 1150 pupils and 90 staff members participated each year.

Table 1: Skills developed during Newman Enterprise Day

Table 1 shows pupil perceptions of the skills that they developed from attending Newman day. A positive trend can be observed where more pupils stated that they had learned various skills from the event.

While we make every effort to give students their preferred ‘option’ on the day this is not always possible due to numbers. The children who gave a negative response were mainly those not given their first choice. Based on Figure 5, the vast majority of pupils believed that the day was ‘great’, productive and enjoyable.

The typical comments provided by pupils give more insight into how they see their involvement in this activity. The knowledge and skills gained as well as the fun of taking part were all expressed below.

I learned how to work a digital camera.

My Spanish teacher showed me how to cook! It was funny seeing him wearing an apron.

Today I have learned that I should try and challenge myself more. I also learned how to cooperate in a group

Today we made a robot called Teacher Control and I learned that our frontal lobes help us the most when we are learning. We had to build things that could help you in class and in school.

Today I was taught exercises which will help me relax and feel better about school, exams etc.

I enjoyed myself today as it made me realise that if you want to do something in life and you try your hardest by working for it you will achieve it.

I worked with older pupils from fifth year. They were soooo cool and helped me.

Following our very successful student enterprise day, the enterprise committee agreed that we should progress to the next stage and have a staff enterprise day.  Our first staff enterprise activity day took place on in-service day 3 in November 2006 and our partner primaries were invited to join us.

‘Signposts to improvement in professional responsibility… teaching staff recognise that they, too, are learners’
Improving Scottish Education
A report by HMIe on inspection and review 2002-2005 (Published February 2006)