News, SCHOOLS

PHOTOS: Sweet Taste Of Success For Spa NS Entrepreneurs

.
Clara O’Dowd and Clodagh O’Dowd at the Junior Entrepreneur Programme Showcase at Spa National School on Monday. Photo by Lisa O’Mahony.

THE spirit of entrepreneurship was alive and well in Spa National School on Monday as the school’s 5th class students launched their 2017 J.E.P Project, “Spa’s Scrumptious Sweets”!

The Junior Entrepreneur Programme is specifically designed to promote entrepreneurship amongst primary school students.

Since 2010, over 26,000 primary school students in Ireland have participated in the unique and hugely popular programme.

Continued below…

.

Over the past four months, the Spa students have worked tirelessly under the guidance of their teacher, Mr. Niall Morgan.

The class originally came up with six different business ideas. They hosted a special ‘Dragons Den’ to select the best one “Spa’s Scrumptious Sweets”. Then everyone rowed in behind the choice and began working on different areas like product research and design, finance, marketing and of course sales.

At the showcase day last Monday, the students used a power point presentation to explain the different stages of their entrepreneurial journey and showed a specially designed movie with all the highlights to the large attendance.

The students were showcasing and selling, “Spa’s Scrumptious Sweets”, their beautiful sweet jars containing the favourite sweets of all the students in the school.

They have been inundated with orders from people looking to enjoy the sweets once Easter comes! At a recent school fundraising event, the students sold out of stock in just over an hour.

“I loved it,” said student Molly Sheehy “we learned loads and especially about the importance of teamwork.”

Classmate Art O’Sullivan agreed, “It was a lot of hard work, but well worth it. We are very proud of our finished product!”

Special guest on the day was local entrepreneur, Mr. Jim Breen. Jim spoke to the students about his own life as an entrepreneur. He was hugely impressed with the students and praised them for their creativity, energy and commitment to ensuring the project was a huge success. ‘Every entrepreneur should take time out to meet these kinds of students to top up our own energy levels’, said Jim. Scroll down for photos…

Orlaith McKenna and Molly McDaid at their Junior Entrepreneur Programme showcase at Spa National School on Monday. Photo by Lisa O’Mahony.
.
Marie Curran, Carisse Curran and Breda Byrne at the Junior Entrepreneur Programme showcase at Spa National School on Monday. Photo by Lisa O’Mahony.
Ann Kane with David Chute and Muireann O’Brien, at their Junior Entrepreneur Programme showcase at Spa National School on Monday. Photo by Lisa O’Mahony.
Clemence Igleglesias, Ciara Dowling and Molly Sheehy at their Junior Entrepreneur Programme showcase at Spa National School on Monday. Photo by Lisa O’Mahony.
Fifth Class Students of Spa National School with Jim Breen and their class teacher Niall Morgan at the Junior Entrepreneur Programme on Monday. Photo by Lisa O’Mahony.