At Kingcase Primary School in Prestwick, P5 pupils have set up a company to produce personalised fridge magnets with a company slogan “Get your face on the fridge”.

They have drawn up a business plan which they are taking to the local Bank of Scotland for a start-up grant of pound;50. The company structure includes a resources group to price, order and buy component parts; a sales group to sell to parents, teachers and friends as well as to Kedron Elementary School in Georgia in the United States with whom they are partnered; an advertising group to check commercial prices and conduct a survey of the potential market; and a finance group in overall charge, who monitor income and expenditure and balance the books.

Pupils who have applied by letter for the post of managing director are being interviewed.

Headteacher Anne Nutt says: “Projects like this have great potential to be enlarged through the commitment of the whole staff. It’s about educating the children into a thinking culture.” Pupils will learn to work in groups, do design, sequencing, functional writing and letter writing, practise telephone and communication skills, decision-making and taking responsibility.

Healthy Biscuits

At Carrick Academy in Maybole, Secondary 2 pupils are setting up a company to produce healthy biscuits to be sold to the school which will serve them at a parents’ evening.

Pupils are developing the recipe, undertaking market research, working out costs, designing a label and packaging. The project involves home economics, mathematics, computing, science and art departments as well as a link-with-industry visit to British Bakeries in Prestwick and product testing by top chefs from Turnberry Hotel.

Comments from the pupils include: “It’s real experience”; “You get to go and do things”; “The best bit will be going to visit the real bakery”; “It was our choice and we’ll make it work”; “It’s different”; “I’m already worried what the chefs will think of our product”; “We’ll send you a biscuit, maybe”.

Pupils will work together to develop self-confidence, communication skills, creativity and problem-solving skills, maths, science and home economics skills, resulting in a new snack food that reflects the Nineties approach to health.