21st Century Women

Mind your own business

Working in harmony with enrichment activities from CCF and Debating to Outreach and Adventure, our Entrepreneurship Programme fosters skills that not only enable Sherborne girls to run their own businesses but also thrive as 21st century women.

This year, our business courses, off-timetable entrepreneurship days and year group challenges have been helping pupils from L4-M5 engage their instinct for opportunity and awaken their entrepreneurial spirit.

CAFE CULTURE

This year L5 swapped their classrooms for cafés to find inspiration for the creation of a new coffee-shop concept. Following an introductory course on entrepreneurship, teams took to the streets of Sherborne to conduct market research in some of the town ’ s popular cafés, culminating in a talk by the owner of Oliver ’ s, Jane Wood. The girls have since been busy identifying target customers, designing product ranges and creating branding and marketing strategies.

Georgina Penfold (L5):

“This challenge has made me appreciate what goes into running a coffee shop. I got so many good ideas from the cafés in Sherborne, such as cup design, environmentally friendly products, keeping things local and how to give my coffee a unique twist. ”

L5 will present their ideas later in June to Food PR and Marketing expert Liz Murray and Graham Cox, Commercial Director at Bean Shot. We can ’t wait to hear what they think!

NO SUCH THING AS A FREE RIDE

L4 and U4 relished the task of creating a new attraction for Thorpe Park that would offer visitors a brand new ‘Feel Good Fun ’ adventure and tackle the common problem of queues. They were asked to identify their target customers, before creating a design concept, back story and associated product for their ride.

Deploying collaborative and problemsolving skills, the teams came up with some very inventive solutions which included making the queue an interactive part of the ride. We wish them luck with their presentations in June.

LIFE’S A GAME

M5 thoroughly enjoyed a day spent learning what it takes to design, market and protect a new online game. In the M5 Entrepreneurship Challenge, the girls worked in teams to create original concepts such as ‘Gameflix ‘Exploraway ’ , ‘Who done it?’ , ‘Happily ever after ’ and ‘Tic tac on the go

Pitching them in Dragon

’ s Den style presentations, they described their target audiences, marketing and cyber security strategies. Judges were impressed by the enthusiasm, collaboration and creativity the girls brought to this challenge.

AND THAT’S A WRAP!

M5 had another opportunity to showcase their entrepreneurial skills, Hollywood style. Following a day off timetable discovering filmmaking, the M5 Film Challenge gave them two months to produce a two-minute film entitled ‘Never too small to make a big difference ’ . The competition concluded with appropriate glamour at an ‘Oscars night’ , complete with red carpet and a giant gold ‘Oscar ’ . Huge congratulations to Livs Messervy, Mary Chan, Buhlebetive Dlamini, Chloe Paterson and Zoe Quaite for winning Best Overall Film.

Inspiring lives

Inspirational and thought provoking, talks by external speakers engage the girls with the wider world, broaden their perspectives and demonstrate the value of qualities such as resilience and humour. Last term we were privileged to hear from two very different individuals, both ‘ ordinary women ’ who, caught up in events beyond their control, had extraordinary stories to share.

DR CHARLOTTE MAXWELL-JONES

In the last of our Friday night lectures in the Lent Term, girls from U5 to U6 were joined live from Afghanistan by Dr Charlotte Maxwell-Jones, the founder of Kabul Small Animal Rescue (KSAR). The girls listened in rapt silence as she described the challenges of running a charity and organising animal evacuations in a war zone.

In August 2021, the Taliban took control of Afghanistan and foreign citizens scrambled to evacuate. KSAR spent a week at the airport trying to evacuate the 130 dogs they had rescued. Their heroic efforts sadly failed, and the dogs were forcibly released, leaving Dr MaxwellJones at the airport with a disabled puppy to face the uncertainty of a new regime.

As well as talking about her career in anthropology, her job with an international think tank, her love of animals and starting a charity, Dr Maxwell-Jones fascinated the girls with her insights into life in Afghanistan. Giving a ‘ warts and all’ account of living and working with the Taliban, she also discussed with humility and humour the skills that enabled her to continue running KSAR and find over 80 of the released dogs. Dr Maxwell-Jones has since managed to evacuate 286 animals to Canada.

The girls were captivated by what she had to say and appreciated the honesty and frankness with which she spoke. Dr Maxwell-Jones ’ story clearly demonstrates that any individual can make a difference, if they choose to.

Emma Cook (U5):

“The lecture was extremely interesting, touching and eyeopening. Dr Charlotte Maxwell-Jones is truly remarkable. ”

EVA CLARKE

In March, L6 A Level historians listened to the testimony of Holocaust survivor, Eva Clarke, via a live video call organised by the Holocaust Educational Trust.

Born in Mauthausen Concentration Camp on 29 April 1945, Eva and her mother were the only survivors of their family, 15 of whom died in Auschwitz-Birkenau. Eva ’ s talk and her answers to the girls ’ questions prompted them to think about her life, the horrific events that shaped it and what can be learnt, as shown in these reflections:

“The tenacity of Eva ’ s mother was one of the things that stood out most, how, even though she came close to death so many times, she still managed to carry on and survive. ”

“The Holocaust is relevant because there is still racism and prejudice in the world. People are still committing genocide and discriminating against others. By knowing about the Holocaust and listening to its survivors, we can learn how to stop this from happening again. ”

Sarah Elliott, Head of History, Politics and Sociology