Guest Post: Club Kidpreneur

I’m so excited to introduce the talented, passionate and dedicated Year 4 teacher, Jen Rowe, who very successfully introduced the concept of ‘Entrepreneurship’ in our Junior School. Jen has kindly written about the program she ran with another wonderful teacher, Caitlin.

2017 successfully saw the first Club Kidpreneur program at St Aidan’s Junior School. Club Kidpreneur is an innovative business program that aims to develop and ignite entrepreneurial spirit and skills and create kidpreneurs by equipping them with innovation and knowledge capacity for the jobs of the future. 32 kidpreneurs learnt how to create and build a business that’s purpose was to solve a problem that they had identified in the community. With dedication, resilience and problem-solving by their side, the kidpreneurs designed and created products that represented their business. Bath bombs, stress balls, wishing dolls, motivational posters, bunting and pom poms, clay animals, hair accessories, dream catchers, bracelets, bandannas and glow jars were all on display and were sold at the 2017 Club Kidpreneur Market Stall day. Each business sold out, and collectively, the Kidpreneurs raised $1 323.45 for the Starlight Children’s Foundation. Throughout the program, students had the opportunity to develop life skills of resilience, confidence, communication, problem-solving, financial literacy and team work. The entrepreneurial skills that the girls developed throughout the year was clearly evident in their businesses, the products they made and their teamwork. As you can imagine, there were plenty of setbacks that each business encountered throughout the year, which they learnt from and ultimately, benefited from. Below are a selection of reflections from some of kidpreneur businesses.

“I enjoyed working with my friends, learning how to make a business and how to manage conflict in businesses. Upon reflection, I would increase the quantity of the product by starting to make them earlier.”
“We enjoyed making the business although raising the money for charity also made us feel happy. We learnt how to create a business and work as a team to do it.”
“We learnt that making a business takes time and you need to have perseverance to get the task done.”
“We loved the environment and getting a lot closer with everyone. We also loved learning about how to create a real business. We learnt that everyone opinions count, and that sometimes you have to agree to disagree and that’s ok!”

This program is a highly valuable and provides real-life authentic learning experiences. We’ll be back, bigger and better in 2018.

It certainly was an inspiring program with plenty of ‘making’, thank you Jen for making the time to contribute to TinkeringChild.

 

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Jackie Child
Jackie Child has been teaching primary aged students for 40 years in a number of countries. She is passionate about how children learn through constructivist pedagogy. She is a Teacher Librarian at St Aidan’s Anglican Girls’ School and a sessional tutor at Griffith University for pre-service teachers. Jackie doesn’t believe in standing still, there is always plenty to ‘do’ and learn!

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