Wishford Weekend

The annual Wishford Weekend gave Year 6 the chance to meet and socialise with over a hundred Year 6 pupils from the six other schools in the Wishford Group. The boys camped for two

nights in the beautiful grounds of Hatherop Castle School accompanied by their Tutor Mr Parsons, Dr Cane-Honeysett and Miss Elwood. Hatherop put on an action packed pro

gram including a dance competition, mini-Olympic event, a climbing wall, school fete, team games, tennis, movie night and camp fire songs.

The presentation to the winning entries in the Wishford Enterprise Award got the weekend started. To much whooping and cheering, Jordan Daykin made his entrance, accompanied by his warm-up act, and former teacher, Stuart Morgan-Nash; now Headmaster of Wishford’s St Edward’s Prep School, Reading.

Stuart told the children about Jordan’s career to date. Starting his first business at the age of twelve, Jordan then set up Grip It Fixings, and at the age of eighteen was the youngest ever to pitch successfully in the Dragons’ Den, securing an £80,000 investment from Deborah Meaden. Now aged 21, Jordan’s business is booming and was valued at £20 million in a recent crowdfunding. This certainly caught the children’s attention!

More than twenty teams from around the Wishford Group had received start-up funding from Jordan of £50, and had developed their businesses and traded over a twenty-four hour period. Each team had then submitted their business plan and profit and loss account to Jordan, who spent several days working through them. “I was so impressed with the work that had gone into the plans, so wanted to make sure I gave each one the consideration it deserved,” commented Jordan, adding “there were some really ingenious ideas amongst the plans and a real enthusiasm to learn and get involved.”

After some inspiring words about the value of hard work and self-belief, Jordan announced the winners, selected for the level of effort and originality, as well as the financial success of the enterprise. St Edward’s Killer Cookies were one of the worthy runners-up, but the overall winner was Taste of Spice, from St Edward’s Prep. The boys had made and sold tasty snacks, but the clincher was the website they had designed and built, which allowed customers to pre-order in advance of their trading period, enabling them to judge the level of demand and so ensure they sold everything they produced and maximise their profit.

The children were all truly inspired by the experience and gained a valuable insight into the world of business and entrepreneurialism. Surely it won’t be many years before we see the first of them in the Den!

The boys represented the school excellently over the whole of the Wishford Weekend, and had a great final night at the disco which was finished off with all the schools dancing in one final dance together. It was an awesome weekend with pupils saying it should be a “Wishford Week not a weekend!” and other saying “It was the most fun I have ever had.”