Partner Article

Angel on a bus lands youngsters top business prize

An audio book telling the story of The Angel of the North springing into life and touring the North East on an open top bus has landed a leading enterprise award for talented Northumberland schoolchildren.

The vivid imaginations of the five youngsters from the Northumberland Church of England Academy created an audio book in rhyming verse aimed at three to five-year-olds, based on the adventures of the Angel touring the local area.

They presented their ‘Open Top Angel’ story as part of a fully-costed business plan to judges at the Skills to Shine Summer School Grand Final at the Discovery Museum in Newcastle – and lifted the crown as overall champions for their enterprise and business acumen.

The Northumberland Church of England Academy team was set the task of creating its own ten sentence book and recording it onto audio as part of the Skills to Shine Summer School programme.

Seizing the opportunity, the creative imaginations of Kirstin Scott, Georgia Potts, Rian Laidlow, Jack Kadansky and Jospeh Turnbull, all aged 11, produced the story centred around the iconic North East landmark.

Amy Thompson, Primary Director of Numeracy, at the academy’s Josephine Butler Campus in Ashington, said: “I am very proud of the children and their achievement.

“Not only have they produced a very creative product, but they have worked well as a team and have grown in confidence.”

The academy team took inspiration for their book from open top bus tours to the Angel of the North and across Newcastle organised by the Skills to Shine team to fire their imaginations.

Skills to Shine takes an innovative approach to learning in the classroom. It works with schools and businesses to create an environment where teaching and learning methods become real, relevant and inspiring for children.

A not for profit social enterprise, it works with young people in the classroom, to give them the knowledge and skills they need to shine in whatever career path they choose.

More than 300 children aged 11 from seven schools across the North East and Birmingham went back to the classroom with Skills to Shine over the summer to learn how enterprise and business skills can help them achieve in the career they want to pursue .

The Summer School Grand Final featured 13 teams from schools in Northumberland, Tyneside, County Durham and Birmingham.

Skills to Shine Managing Director Lindsey Dunn has ambitious plans to expand her summer programme of hands-on learning into many more schools across the country next year to raise classroom attainment levels.

“The thought the children at Northumberland Church of England Academy put into pricing their book and how the profits would be given to charity made a big impact on our judges,” said Lindsey.

“The tasks we set the children were all different business scenarios, to help them work together, let them use their imaginations and make them think about the world of work and the careers that are out there for them.”

Ends.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Gordon Arnott .