Thursday 27th March 2025 saw our six ‘Urban Crew’s’ coming together at Manchester Communications Academy for our annual ‘Enterprise Day’.
The day had been long anticipated by all pupils (and teachers) involved. Everyone was excited to meet each other and have a fun, new experience.
A big thank you to our special visitors from Manchester City Council and Manchester Rotary club who supported the success of the day.
The Urban Crew Citizens Project has been running for fourteen years organised by MCA in conjunction with Manchester City Council Housing.
During the project, all pupils involved are working towards an ASDAN accreditation which is the equivalent of a GCSE module! This involves nine key step modules such as identity, community, and enterprise.
Enterprise day incorporates challenges from Module 7 – Enterprise. Each ‘business’ (school group) was provided with resources to sell at the end of the day.
The ‘products’ created were: scratch art bracelets, photo frames, bookmarks, keyrings, magnets, and 3D wooden flowers.
The day was a success from start to finish and every student demonstrated creativity, responsibility, and teamwork.
Each group created their own ‘products’ and filled out costing sheets to ensure that everything was priced with profit and strategy in mind, just like a real business! This enabled them to learn real world skills which they can carry forth with them beyond their school years.
After a full morning of finalising their ‘products’ and ‘business stalls’, the marketplace opened...
We had several groups of MCA students coming through with ‘urban crew dollars’ for an hour to ‘buy’ the products and interact with the ‘sellers’.
All of the pupils were very excited and the high pressure environment gave them the opportunity to really come out of their shells and put their business skills to the test.
Some children came up with 2 for 1 deals, and some even created ‘last minute products’ to sell! No child was short on resourcefulness, meaning that most groups completely sold out their stalls and the year 9’s left with more glitter than they bargained for!
However, in the end there could only be three winners...
- Best sales – All Saints
- Most profit – MCPA
- Best teamwork – Charlestown
The winners received a crème egg and a special Urban Crew certificate.
During their first Urban Crew workshop in November, each child was asked to create their own superhero and think of one way they could embody one of these qualities more in their own lives.
At the end of the day a volunteer from each group came to the front to share with everybody how they had been like their superhero on the day.
Each child gave a beautiful and eloquent answer, on themes such as kindness, teamwork, and trying their best. I think this really summed up the essence of the day.
A huge thank you as always to all of the staff, volunteers, and most importantly the students as we couldn’t do this without your support and enthusiasm
