Configur Academy - Summer Term, Week 3

Dear Parents,

This is Orgesa from Configur Academy. We are now three sessions into Young Founders House and Rise to Lead, so I wanted to take this weekend to sit down and tell you properly what has been happening in both rooms and what is coming up.

We started this session by forming teams for the first time. I split the children into groups, and each group chose a colour and came up with a name. The rule was simple: it had to have something to do with business or money. Here is what they came up with:

Green: The Money Makers. 
Red: The Fire Queens. 
Blue: The Bestsellers. 
Purple: The Rich R-s. 
Yellow: The Yars Queens.

These teams will compete in challenges every week. Children vote every week, and one team wins.

This week's challenge was The Bored Dog. I told them about Mrs Henderson, who goes to work every day and comes home to find her dog has destroyed the house, sofa, cushions, and one shoe. Their job was to come up with a product or service that solves her problem and figure out how to make money from it.

I want to be honest with you, I was not expecting what came out of this. One team designed a machine that fires balls at the dog throughout the day to keep it occupied. Another came up with a smart cage that talks to the dog. There were app-controlled toys, and some genuinely thought-through ideas about what a bored dog actually needs versus what you could realistically sell. The imagination in that room was something.

But here is the part that mattered most to me. After they came up with their ideas, I asked each team to work out their costs, what it would take to actually make or deliver their product, and then decide on a price. From there, we talked about profit: what does it mean to make money, what does it mean to break even, and what does it mean to do all that work and walk away with nothing. They had clearly held onto what we covered in Session 2, because the conversation was sharper than I expected. They were catching each other out on pricing that was too low, questioning costs that had been guessed at rather than thought through.

The pitches at the end were brilliant. Some teams just stood up and presented. Others performed their idea, full Dragons' Den energy, walking the room through how their product worked. Then everyone voted for the team they would actually invest in. Not their own team.

The Yars Queens (Yellow Team) took the first point on the leaderboard.

The reason I run these challenges is not just so children can learn about business. It is so they get into the habit of seeing a problem and immediately asking: how would I solve this? And then: could that solution be worth something to someone? That is a way of thinking that I believe is useful well past any market or any classroom.

I also asked the children to start costing their own market products at home this week. In the next session, we will start working out the loan number and how much each child will need to borrow to get their business off the ground. They are beginning to understand how all of this fits together, which is exactly where I wanted them to be at this point in the term.

The Young Founders Market is Sunday, 7 June, 12:00–2:00 pm at The Patch, 42 York Street, Twickenham. Children arrive at 11:30 am to set up their stalls.

This session was about making an argument that actually holds up.

I taught the children three things every good argument needs: a Point - what you actually think; a Reason - why you think it; and an Example - something that proves it. A point on its own is just an opinion. All three together are something people have to take seriously.

Then I gave them a challenge called Convince the Room. Each team had to argue a statement in front of everyone else, not because they believed it, but because they had been given it. The four statements were: 

They had ten minutes to prepare, and then they presented. And I want to tell you, they used what they had just learned.

What I am most proud of this week, though, is something different. When we started this term, there were children who were not happy to go up in front of the room and would quietly let someone else carry the presentation. That is gone now. Every child has a role. Every child has lines. Every child stands up and speaks. You can see the difference from week one, and I am very proud of every single one of them.

The Sour Lemons, the yellow team, won this one. 

If your child has lost their showcase question sheet from the last session, reply to this email, and I will send another one.

Bank Holiday - Monday 4 May: no Rise to Lead this week. Next session is Monday, 11 May.

Young Founders Market - Sunday 7 June, 12:00–2:00 pm, The Patch, 42 York Street, Twickenham. Children arrive at 11:30 am.

That is everything from this week. As always, if you have a question about either programme or if there is anything you would like to talk through, you can reply to this email or message me directly on 07414 962803.

Have a lovely weekend.

Orgesa
Founder, Rise to Lead
Configur Academy
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