Enterprising group reaping rewards
Queen Elizabeth’s Grammar School sixth-former BEN JOHNSON introduces the school’s Young Enterprise scheme
I AM the newly-appointed treasurer of the Sixth Form Student Council at Queen Elizabeth’s. I applied for the role as I am an avid mathematician and wanted to improve my skills while playing a role in helping to make school life better for others.
I have immersed myself in extra-curricular activities such as sports as well as the debate club to enrich my learning and expand my CV as a prospective university student.
As treasurer, a helpful job I once held was financial director of my Young Enterprise team. For this, we won the best financial management award in the county.
Young Enterprise is an international competition for budding entrepreneurs; it is the students’ responsibility to manage all aspects of running the business, from the financial aspects like paying suppliers and issuing dividends at the end of the school year to shareholders, to product design and marketing.
I had the tasking role of overseeing all of the financial transactions and was responsible for the location and handling of all of the money.
The skills I have developed from this experience will be useful in my new role and in future educational and employment ventures. Even though maths and finances are my strengths, that is not all that can be learnt from Young Enterprise.
In our company we had: marketers who controlled social media and pushed our product to consumers; a textiles team who designed and produced the goods, utilising their sewing and artistic skills; a woodwork team who designed and produced items using their machinery and engineering skills; and salespeople who demonstrated that communication is the key to success in any business.
My point was that no matter what skills you have or what you are interested in, at QEGS there is always an activity or club in which you can enhance your skills or develop new ones. It is vital to always keep developing yourself!
Molly Murphy, managing director of the Young Enterprise group says: “Over the past year, I have been the Managing Director of this year’s Young Enterprise group, called ‘Multicycle.’
“My role has been the general overseeing and coordinating of the main operations – production, marketing and finance.
“I have worked closely with the directors of these subteams to ensure everything is running smoothly and executed to the highest standard.
“I have planned and led weekly meetings for the group to reflect on past sales events, plan for future ventures and keep everyone up to date.
“As a group, we have attended various sales events and competition showcases and have recently been awarded the ‘Teamwork’ award.
“Being a large group, of 32, this award was particularly meaningful to us as the group has been challenging to manage at times – but recognition of this has felt very rewarding.”
Hannah Davies, marketing director of the Young Enterprise group, said: “My role as marketing director for young enterprise benefited in multiple ways and gave me great insights into the world of business.
“I managed a small team of around 10 people. We were in charge of promoting the business on social platforms, arranging and attending sale events, fund-raising within sixth form and also creating the general atheistic we wanted of our business.
“I very much enjoyed the role, contacting out of school venues and arranging for a team to handle these events.
“It applied a certain amount of pressure but made you aware of how is best to handle these situations to create a positive situation.
“Although we saw some minor hindrances along the way, I was there to manage this and stepped up to fix situations.
“Young Enterprise for me helped me gain key experience and, above all, enjoyment.
“I would recommend to anyone about getting involved in the scheme!”
IT has been a winter of extremes so far, with excessive rain until February and then becoming very cold.
I couldn’t find any rainfall figures for the Ashbourne area but there is a live weather station at Buxton, run by Michael Hilton. Since the beginning of October, Buxton has received 35 inches of rain – the annual average is only around 15 inches more at 50 inches.
It is no wonder the River Wye was so high during the three days of almost constant rain at the end of January, and Matlock came close to flooding as badly as in November 2019.
The River Dove was also over-topping in places with a similar quantity of rain falling on the headwaters of the Manifold and Dove in the Staffordshire moorlands.
If weather extremes such as this are becoming the new normal, it will require a variety of measures mitigate their impact.
The use of natural flood management (NFM) techniques is seen by some as solving all problems. NFM is where the flow if water in the upper reaches of a river is slowed using series of usually wooden dams which trap water and the slowly release it.
In order to trap a significant quantity, many dams are required and they will require maintenance as they rot, fill with other debris and so can’t hold much water, or get damaged and hold no water at all.
Tree planting is also seen as a way to attenuate water. However, it is a case of the right trees in the right place.
I fail to see how woodland, if allowed to get thick so there
is little under-storey and in winter when most trees have shed their leaves, will hold any more water as well vegetated moorland.
Indeed, properly drained agricultural land that can soak up rainfall and then slowly release the water into field drains, can be as effective.
The truth is it will be a combination of measures, some NFM upstream, some flood defences near property, some ‘soft’ engineering – to divert water into earth banked holding areas on natural flood plains with small diameter pipes through which the water slowly escapes as flood levels recede.
In addition, conventional flood defences to protect properties and some downstream dredging will keep the water flowing.
There is no one magic solution. A few random beavers being released will not achieve the same outcome, as some people would have us believe.
New ideas will have their place and there will need to be incentives for farmers and land managers to build structures and maintain them.
Compensation will be required for the land lost to long periods of flooding.
The new Environmental Land Management scheme under development could be a means to deliver such flood management.
They will need to work from the start with those who farm and manage the land, if such schemes are to deliver.