The Year 11 Enterprise Day focused on the impact of ethical, economic, geographical and political issues. The girls undertook a simulation game set in an imaginary Latin American shanty town, where small family businesses worked hard to make trainers to sell to a local market. During the game they experienced the problems of debt, poverty, high inflation and corrupt officials. Issues of ethical trading, debt, poor working and living conditions, government policy, globalisation and development provided to be controversial topics.
The students were then given the opportunity to sample A-level style discussions in break out groups. In RS, each group had to consider an ethical situation, decide what they would do and the implications it would raise, and then decide how specific scholars within the ethical world would respond. It resulted in some very lively debates! In Politics, students deliberated political decision making and how decisions made by politicians affect us all. They considered the issue of voting at 16.
In Geography students were asked to consider the impact of transport upon the climate along with possible strategies for reducing its effects. Students were tasked with developing a questionnaire, with the purpose of investigating and measuring the sustainability of current transport use within the Howell’s community. In Economics, students discussed the ethical issues which affect funding decisions in public organisations such as the NHS. They very quickly realised that funding one area meant cutting or stopping funding in other areas. Plastic surgery was a particularly controversial discussion.
The day was a great success and the students thoroughly enjoyed the activities. Thank you to the humanities departments for providing such fantastic resources.
