Congratulations to Liam Dargon, Luke Heyes and Georgina Grice who successfully presented at Darwen’s Neighbourhood Board to obtain funding for Darwen’s first Search for a Star Event. Auditions are currently being held across primary schools in Darwen to search for a new rising talent with that all important X-factor. The funding received will pay for an interactive voting system so that the audience can decide the ultimate winner of the event. Primary schools can also take part in a number of entrepreneurship activities in the run up to the event including, design a ticket, t-shirt and applying for a job on the night. Tickets will be available soon!

Throughout February students from the Darwen Aldridge Community Academy (DACA) have been putting their entrepreneurial skills to the test and taking part in the national enterprise competition, ‘Make Your Mark with a Tenner’.

Students from the Academy were given the chance to apply for a £10 loan from the Make Your Mark with a Tenner Bank and then tasked with using their entrepreneurial skills to make money, and make a difference to the community, by setting up their very own business. They were challenged to turn their tenner into a larger sum.

The initiative has given students the opportunity to help other people via enterprising activity and by investing their subsequent profits into a good cause. DACA students have shown real initiative and devised some inventive business ideas to rival Richard Branson! From car washing to cake making, the Academy has been buzzing with entrepreneurial spirit this month.

One resourceful year eight student, Oliver McHugh, utilised his contacts and managed to get his hands on a football signed by Manchester City Football Club and has been selling raffle tickets to raise money for Derian House, a childrens hospice in Clitheroe. Oliver said: “I got involved with the project as I wanted to see what I could do for charity and I also wanted to take part in a national enterprise competition and to put what I have learnt so far at DACA into practice. I am really grateful to everybody who has helped me so far, including my family, and I really hope the business is a success.”

Make Your Mark with a Tenner is a national enterprise competition for 20,000 young people aged 19 and under in schools or via youth organisations. It is supported by NESTA (the National Endowment for Science, Technology, and the Arts) and funded by entrepreneurs Peter Jones and Michael and Xochi Birch, the founders of social networking site Bebo.

This year prizes will be given to the individuals and teams which generate the biggest returns and which have the greatest social impact.

Celebrating the end of its first term, the Academy hosted an evening of festive fun with contributions from students across all years.

Kicking off with an entrepreneurial spirited Christmas fayre in aid of charities specially selected by the students.

With street dancing performances, cheerleading displays, a nativity and a pantomime, musical renditions of the Disney hit, High School Musical, not to mention the staff choir, the Academy’s pool of performing arts talent donned their dancing shoes and sang their hearts out as they took to the stage to entertain guests.

As part of the DACA entrepreneurship curriculum, and to demonstrate how well the new specialism had been adopted, students in years 7, 8 and 9 were given the opportunity to set up their very own innovative Christmas enterprises. Each tutor group was given £25 to invest in materials to help create new products and services, including festive mugs and jewellery, a gift wrapping service and the unique ‘Project Candy Cane’ which allowed students to secretly communicate with each other via wrapped candy canes that carried special messages. All products and services were sold on the night and proceeds were donated to the designated charities.

Limits, celebrated female entrepreneurship by not only acknowledging the achievements of local women but also encouraging the Academy’s female population to set up their very own pink enterprise businesses to raise funds for the charity – Tickled Pink.

As well as presentations from local female entrepreneurs (including Wendy Bowers, the Women’s Enterprise Representative for the board of the NWDA) on how to make ideas happen, the event featured a ‘hot-to-trot’ fashion show and will be attended by 300 local female guests, including Year 5-11 students from nearby schools, and their parents. All were treated to an exclusive preview of a DVD created by DACA in celebration of Darwen’s female enterprise community.