Bringing Aycliffe Business Park Together | 11
Work goes on inside the purpose-built Enterprise City at Ebac
Children from St Mary ’ s School in Newton Aycliffe experienced Enterprise City for the first time
“ The children are running the place , and they like to make money , but there ’ s also a realisation that they have to pay bills and bank loans off .
“ But they all made a lot of money by the end of the day so they all went home pretty excited !”
The programme is designed to meet PSHE and incorporates citizenship , numeracy , literacy and art and design curriculum in an adaptable and kinaesthetic way .
Gail Mason , a year six teacher at St Mary ’ s , said : “ We spent two weeks looking at what a city is and how it works . We looked at how businesses run , which included the children interviewing some of the management team at Ebac and they also went through an interview process for a job .
“ They had to write letters of application and they had to research how to get through a job interview .
“ They also looked at profit and loss and they applied it all at Enterprise City to try to make money .
“ Alongside that we ’ ve also done a lot of work within the curriculum . We painted city-scapes , we ’ ve created music based on city sounds , they built a 3D city .
“ They worked as a team and they ’ ve learned a lot , both educationally but also social skills .”
Gail says the scheme is a real “ all rounder ”, adding : “ There ’ s lots of opportunity for this to branch into all areas of the curriculum and it ’ s a project you can either do over two weeks , or you can spread it over a term .
“ There ’ s a lot of writing involved , a lot of maths and DT . It ’ s related to work-life experiences and is very relevant . It ’ s given them an understanding of why education is important and how it ’ s used later in life , and it will hopefully improve their performance in school ultimately .
“ Companies want to have a relationship with the schools , so hopefully this is the perfect medium for that to happen .”
“ The enthusiasm for the whole project has been fantastic .”
The third director , Damian Stevenson , reckons the innovative programme has “ unlimited potential ”.
He said : “ The programme is designed to give them a platform from which to build on . They come on and express themselves , do their own things .
“ They think , they learn and they develop with the programme during the course of the day , and I think it has unlimited potential . We ’ ve fought hard to get it to Aycliffe and into our local schools . We ’ ve got some funding in place and now it ’ s a case of getting them signed up to come through and experience it for themselves .
“ Once people see it , we think they ’ ll come back for more .”
Damian added : “ The help and support of local firms has been vital and we couldn ’ t have done it without them . Some of the lads behind the scenes have done a brilliant job in putting this together .
“ It ’ s all been worth it . The kids have had an absolute ball , which is what it ’ s all about .”
Mrs Petty , the daughter of Ebac founder John Elliott who now runs the company , spotted the potential when she was told about the scheme , and immediately offered the Enterprise trio the chance to uproot in her factory for free , because she felt so passionately about it .
She explains : “ I vividly remember Darren and Damian coming to see me , it was Red Nose Day and I was wearing a bright red curly wig and a red nose , obviously .
“ We were doing our bit for charity that day and I think you get caught up in it all , you forget you look like a wally , and I could see them struggling to keep a straight face at times . It was probably the strangest pitch they ’ ve ever had to do !
“ But when it came down to it , this was no laughing matter . I was taken with their concept , it ’ s something I ’ ve never heard of before and I just think it gives youngsters absolutely vital life skills .
“ I think we can be guilty of bogging children down with words and numbers , without teaching them how to actually get on in life , and I firmly believe that a lot of adults could learn a lot from Enterprise City .
“ The youngsters are helped , of course , but fundamentally they have to make their own decisions , about how much to spend on food and bills while also paying off their loan .
“ To see the City in full flow is a real eye-opener and we ’ re proud to have it within our factory . We ’ re passionate about education and engaging with local schools and this initiative fits in perfectly with our ethos .”
Any school interested in taking part can contact Darren Anderson on 07801 937498 ( darrenanderson @ enterpriseengland . co . uk ) while businesses wanting to find out how they can get involved can contact Damian Stevenson on 07720 415505 ( damian @ enterpriseengland . co . uk )