Three of the team members, Lola Morgans, Lily Wearing and Clarice Nassif, share more about their experience:
What is GDST LEAD?
GDST LEAD is the Leadership & Enterprise Advanced Diploma run by our parent group of schools. We chose to take it as part of the lower sixth activities programme sessions. Most of the team don’t study Business or Economics, so LEAD gave us the opportunity to step outside of our comfort zones and work towards an accreditation from the London School of Economics.
The programme is a combination of Leadership and Enterprise helping develop skills in leadership and entrepreneurship. Half the programme saw us working through leadership modules and learning how to implement these key skills in everyday life. The main part, and where our business idea came in, was for the enterprise element. We were tasked to come up with our own business plan for an original sustainable business idea. Our teacher, Mrs Wells, and our mentor from the programme supported and advised us through the business planning process and up to the final Showcase Event which took place last week at LSE.
What was your idea?
The hardest bit of the entire programme was coming up with our business idea! We started working on quite a few concepts which were eventually scrapped as either the team didn’t like the idea or following market research the ideas were not popular. It took a few weeks to come up with our plan.
Our Business, Bin-Go Norwich, developed from our research that looked into issues affecting Norwich and our local community. Lots came up related to the environment – pollution, littering and recycling – with climate change obviously a huge issue for us all. This led to our idea centred around recycling bins using smart technology to encourage people to recycle. The bins, which we see as being suitable for use in major cities, include a weighing scale in the bottom and a scanner connected with a loyalty card app. People scan their card after having dropped in their recycling, and the weight of their recycling is registered. They can accumulate points for money off in a supermarket chain.
We spent quite a bit of time working through this concept, and researching the different UK supermarkets and which causes they support to identify a potential partner chain. In the end, we chose Morrisons and approached them about our idea, speaking to several departments including their community champion and sustainability divisions.
What happened at the Final Showcase event?
The build up to the Presentation day was so exciting. Having been apart from students at our family of GDST schools through the pandemic, it was so nice to travel to London to all get together in person. Some of the team were nervous before we presented Bin-Go Norwich to the other schools and a panel of judges, but we felt confident in our idea. The presentation went so well – we all smashed it! The judges probed our business plan with great questions but as the idea was robust, we could answer and we had great feedback given that our business is rooted in sustainability with such a positive environmental benefit.
We were so thrilled to win the best presentation award on the day. We think our idea stood out as it was targeted to fix a real problem, which was different from how many of the other teams approached their business plan, many of which were product based. Everyone did so well though, it was great to watch the other teams present.
What is next for the Norwich High LEAD team?
We’ve come to the end of the programme now, but there are so many things we are going to take forward. Having learnt so much about leadership and enterprise and having the opportunity to work through business plan ourselves has made us appreciate entrepreneurs and value team work. We’ve gained so much confidence in public speaking and have a great sense of achievement and accomplishment. It was brilliant for the programme to culminate in the event in London, and it’s great that we’ve got an accreditation from LSE as well.
Whilst we were all really conscious about environmental issues before getting involved with the project, through the research we’ve undertaken on recycling and sustainability, we are now more passionate about the issues and have a heightened awareness around climate change.
We know that Norwich High plan to run the programme again next year, and we are keen to transfer our knowledge and along with Mrs Wells look forward to helping the team next year.
GDST comment:
Cathy Walker, Head of Education Development, Innovation & Learning at GDST commented: “I am so impressed with and proud of the LEAD cohort who came to LSE for the LEAD Showcase. The students were all, every single one of them, quite outstanding. Their ideas, the professionalism with which they presented, their collegiate approach and warm support for their GDST peers, the appreciation of the effort that had gone into the event – they were wonderful. The best ambassadors for each school and for the GDST.
“The Showcase judges couldn’t get over how mature and clued up the students were and kept checking they had understood correctly that these were 16/17 year olds. The mentors, who are all entrepreneurs linked to LSE Generate, were also delighted with them and expressed what a worthwhile endeavour they felt this was for the students’ future careers.