Rugby schools get a pizza the action
Harris School Year 10 pupils will be finding out what it’s like to run their own pizza restaurant at a ‘Maths in the Workplace’ event tomorrow.
This has been organised by The Warwickshire Education Business Partnership at the Benn Hall in Rugby as part of the Independent State School Partnership Programme.
The business simulation event is called ‘Going for Profit’ and the students have to make decisions about the location of their restaurant, how many staff to employ, what to charge and when to expand the business. They must also market their business and design and make pizza boxes.
Helping the pupils with their business decisions and with their maths are ‘mentors’. Year 12 pupils from Rugby High School and Lawrence Sheriff School have been working with the Harris pupils over a number of weeks to help them improve their maths GCSE grades.
The mentor scheme is one of a number of initiatives that make up the Independent State School Partnership Programme. The mentors work one to one with the pupils so they can easily pinpoint areas where there are difficulties and offer help and guidance. “With one to one mentoring it’s quicker to sort out what you don’t understand rather than in class”, said a pupil who has benefited from the mentoring scheme.
The ISSP has been organising collaborative events and programmes since it began in 2003, many of them co-ordinated by the Warwickshire Education Partnership and has been a most successful partnership reflected in comments from OFSTED Inspectors who were “delighted” at the emphasis on partnership working.
The EBP works as part of Warwickshire County Council with businesses and schools to help address the constant demand from employers for school leavers to be ‘work ready’.