Case Studies

As you will have seen in the handbook and through the task, research and discussion points there are many many ways to use the Enterprise Soapbox.

Please take a look at the case studies below, which we hope will bring some of the ideas to life.

SoapScience4Northfleet

July 2007

Northfleet School for Girls (B&E College) Gravesend, Kent.

Aim: To create two competitive and creative Enterprise Days for the Year 10 students at Northfleet.

Working over 2 days, Enterprise Soapbox was used to create fully scored and interactive days for two of the populations in year 10 at Northfleet School for Girls. The days were designed and managed by Innovative Enterprise Ltd in conjunction with Funke Akale the Business and Enterprise Manager at Northfleet.

Populations (of approximately 120 girls) were split into four competing groups and they designed, made, packaged and marketed their own soap products for display and scoring by Governors and local business people.

"The girls really enjoyed themselves and made some incredible products. The days were well organised and ran smoothly. The local newspaper came and took some superb photos and everyone wanted to take their soap home. A great success - we've already booked for next year!"

Funke Akale Business & Enterprise Manager.

Family Learning Day at St Joe's.

March 2007

St Joseph's Catholic High School (Business & Enterprise College), Workington, Cumbria

Aim: To deliver an enterprise-themed family learning day.

St Joseph's Business and Enterprise Manager, Sybil Worsley purchased Enterprise Soapbox to "enable us to deliver project work through the curriculum and a family learning event" at the school.

On a Saturday just before Easter, the students were invited to bring their families into the school to work on a number of projects, one of which was Soapbox. People were invited to make soap in their own moulds and some purchased by the school and those included in the kit. Parents came along and got involved, designing, packaging an working on computers to design labels, posters etc for their products.

From one full kit and a refill, 120 students and their families made soap and also a number of young people at primary link days.

Sybil found the kits easy to use and administer and people were very keen to make more and more soap! She said: "the soapbox is very versatile in as much as it can be used for KS4 as well as primary students. It can be used for scientific knowledge as well as a great tool for delivering enterprise education."

PPD Day for teachers - North Yorkshire

May 2007

York Science Park, North Yorkshire Business Enterprise Partnership (NYBEP)

Aim: Embedding Enterprise and Promoting Creativity.

"Thank you for running the CPD day for teachers - they found the day very useful and particularly enjoyed making soap!

Claire Barker Support Advisor NYBEP.

Teachers worked together in teams to develop their creativity skills, discuss ways of embedding skills and ideas for enterprise and all had a go at making soap in small teams.

The day allowed 12 different secondary and middle schools to come together and share best practice and get their hands dirty making soap products together. As well as the day's activities they were able to network over lunch and swap ideas and plans or the future.

Fiona Wilkinson from Allertonshire School said she found the session on shared examples of enterprise being used most useful because "it brought the ideas to life". We couldn't have put it better ourselves!

Helen Stewart-Smith enjoyed the experience also "lunch was nice too - good people and the facilitator (Andrew Bernard) knows his stuff - Thanks Andrew!"

Embedding Enterprise into the Curriculum - Queen Elizabeth School, Cumbria

Spring/Summer 2007

Queen Elizabeth School, (QES) Kirkby Lonsdale Cumbria

Aim: To Embed Enterprise across the curriculum.

Mrs Chris MacGregor at QES was the second customer for Enterprise Soapbox and was very keen to get the project embedded. Already a very advanced school regarding enterprise education, Chris was looking for a kit to bring other subject areas into the fold of enterprise.

"We wanted to get Science, Art and Design involved more in one project at year 9. When we held a meeting and the handbook came in our CDT team grabbed the handbook with both hands and within 3 days the students were researching and designing soap moulds and packaging!"

"The beauty of the kit is that it is full of ideas, but doesn't proscribe how it should be used. This is perfect as the creativity of the schools' teachers can be developed to use Enterprise Soapbox in a variety of ways. We'll certainly be keeping Soapbox on the curriculum for the future!"

says Chris MacGregor.

The soap box enabled the following:

Mrs Christine McGregor was keen to embed enterprise and work related learning further at QES in a cross curricular way and encourage departments to work together more and share their expertise. Christine likes the Enterprise Soapbox package because it is user friendly (pick up and go) and suitable for teachers with various years of experience. "The beauty of the kit is that it is full of ideas, but doesn't proscribe how it should be used."

As well as being versatile allowing diversity and progression routes to occur, it also allows differentiation across year groups and within the classroom. "We wanted to get Science, Art and Design involved more in a single project at year 9. It's great because the package can be used to support a subject syllabus or used on its own in an enterprise workshop."

Many departments quickly got involved and some really innovative student products were born - one being 'Grease Monkeys' - soap bars in the shape of car tyres designed by young men specifically for the engineering and mechanical market!