Aldridge Teacher Resources

Everything you need to know about running the Social Enterprise Challenge in your school.

WHAT IS THE SOCIAL ENTERPRISE CHALLENGE?

A classroom based 'learn by doing' initiative to engage students in innovation and entrepreneurship. It focuses on creating real ideas for new exciting social enterprises.

The Aldridge Foundation and Startup Sherpas have partnered to create The Social Enterprise Challenge. An initiative that involves all Year 8 students across 8 Aldridge schools.

QUICK START GUIDE

1. Get signed up

You will be invited to the platform by the team at Startup Sherpas. All you need to do are follow these steps:

  1. Check your inbox for your invite (from hello@startupsherpas.org)
  2. Click on the link in the email
  3. Choose your password
  4. Sign in using your email address and password
  5. Done!

2. Check out your homepage

When you sign in, you’ll see your homepage set up specifically for your school and the programme created for you.

From here, you can get to ‘My Workspace’ where you’ll find all you instructions, and we’ve provided you with all the starting points (the mindmaps) that you used in your bootcamp.

3. View your instructions

You’ll be signed up automatically (along with all your students) to one of our Programmes. To check on your instructions, follow these steps:

  1. Go to ‘My Workspace’
  2. You’ll see the instructions for your current week
  3. As a teacher, you can navigate to other weeks  using the week selector

HOW DOES IT WORK? WHAT DO I HAVE TO DO?

We've provided the instructions that the kids follow directly. Videos, worksheets, clear instructions, the lot!

Bootcamp

An exciting 3 hour in-person Bootcamp.

We kick off The Social Enterprise Challenge with a half-day bootcamp run across  

DONE!

TERM 1 - Individual work

4 x 30 minutes missions, run in the classroom.

The students will explore their ‘starting points’, and will create an initial idea using our BBQ Pitch tool!

TERM 2 - Group work*

6 x 30 minutes missions, run in the classroom.

The students will explore diversity and recognising that everyone has skills, and then they will work in teams to create Product Boxes, Pitch to Video, and a simple prototype of their idea.

* Covid permitting – the programme will adapt to individual work if required 

TERM 3 - Group work*

5 x 30 minutes missions, run in the classroom.

THE LAST 2 MISSIONS MUST BE COMPLETED (THE FIRST 3 ARE OPTIONAL)

The students will be making their ideas real using prototyping techniques – Storyboarding and making an Instagram Advert

HOW DO I RUN A SHERPA-LED LESSON?

We've provided the instructions that the students follow directly. Videos, worksheets, clear instructions, the lot! You just join in and provide encouragement.

TOP TIPS

  1. You are there to guide, not teach…hence the name Sherpa.
  2. The instructions on the platform should be shown DIRECTLY
    to the students. Stick it up on the screen if you can.
  3. Trust them to follow the instructions, and give them freedom.
  4. Join in with them! You are there to guide.
  5. The ONLY prep you need to do will either be to get some pens and paper, or to print something out – nothing else!
  6. If you are spending more than 10 minutes on prep, you’re doing it wrong!

HOW DO I USE MY JOURNAL?

We are big into getting you to work on paper, make videos, draw pictures and a host of other things, so we always want you to upload everything you create so you can keep track of progress.

LESSON DOWNLOADS

Download your missions to use in the classroom for when there just isn't any tech!

INSTRUCTIONS (ON SCREEN)

STICK THE INSTRUCTIONS UP ON SCREEN SO THE STUDENTS CAN FOLLOW THEM…

Don’t forget that we aim to be a ‘no prep’ lesson, and the instructions are written so the students follow them directly.

INSTRUCTIONS (HANDOUT)

NO SCREEN OR PROJECTOR? PRINT OUT THE INSTRUCTIONS AND HAND THEM OUT…

If you’ve been beaten by tech limitations, then you can just print the instructions out and hand them around.

HANDOUTS/WORKSHEETS

WE LOVE PENS AND PAPER, SO YOU’LL FIND A NUMBER OF WORKSHEETS ALONG THE JOURNEY…

In the commercial world, these are called ‘canvases’, but they mean the same thing! Print them out and get your students scribbling.

SPRING TERM

SECOND HALF

YOUR TERM 3 MISSION (LESSON) DOWNLOADS

MISSION 5

GROUP PITCHES AND CLASS CELEBRATION!

MISSION 5 - GROUP PITCH AND CLASS PARTY!

Each group has 2 minutes to deliver their pitch for their idea, with 5 certificates awarded at the end to celebrate the ideas, and also the teams attributes.

PREPARING FOR THE GROUP PITCHES

Your students will have already prepared something for their pitch in Mission 4. All we ask is that you make sure they bring everything and have it ready for the final pitch mission.

The more ‘stuff’ around the room, the better! Get all your students to lay out everything they’ve created at the start of the lesson.

Please take pictures! It’s great to share what your classroom looks like with everyone’s creations spread across the room.

AWARDING CERTIFICATES

We would like you to award certificates at the end of the pitches, based purely on your own opinion.

The awards are:

  • Most creative idea
  • Best pitch
  • Most reflective team (e.g. they thought their idea wasn’t any good, and would change things completely)
  • Best teamwork
  • The team with the most passion

SPRING TERM

FIRST HALF

AUTUMN TERM

YOUR TERM 1 MISSION (LESSON) DOWNLOADS

END OF CHALLENGE CHEERLEADING EVENT!

WE WANT TO CELEBRATE YOUR FINAL IDEAS!

AND SO DO OUR FRIENDLY DRAGONS!

A day at the ?Whatif! offices in London, a day being coached by the Startup Sherpa team, a day meeting some amazing people from the world of startups and innovation. And you get a free lunch!!!

10.30am – Meet and Greet
11.15am – Tour of the Office
12.15pm – Lunch
12.45pm – Final prep for pitches
1.30pm – Cheerleader / pitch event – 3 mins pitch + 3 mins questions per idea
3.45pm – Departure

PITCH FORMAT

You have pitched a couple of times during the programme so you’ll be glad to hear that we are going to use the same format for the final pitch.

Because there are so many teams pitching, we will need to be strict on time. You will have 3 mins on the day so aim for a pitch of about 2 mins 30 secs, because it is better to have a bit of time remaining than run over and be cut short.

Follow the same format:

  1. The world or community problem you are trying to solve (30 secs)
  2. What is your big idea, and how will it help people? (45 secs)
  3. How does your idea work? (45 secs)
  4. What you would do next… (30 secs)

As before you can use powerpoint, posters and props to bring your presentation to life. We have put some suggestions for powerpoint below if that is a route you want to take. If using powerpoint, please email over copies to kathy@startupsherpas.co.uk by 5pm Tues 26th Apr.

Finally, on the day we will have time to practice and you will get some tips from the Startup Sherpas team.

FAQs

Our mission at Start up Sherpas is to train the next generation of entrepreneurs and innovators. We have taken a tried and tested innovation and entrepreneurship process used by corporates and adapted it to be used by young people.

This is a programme designed and funded by the Aldridge Foundation. It delivers an entrepreneurship experience which reinforces the Aldridge Attributes. The aim is to come up with ideas for social enterprises (businesses with a social or environmental mission). The Challenge kicked off with a Bootcamp and then students will complete 16 missions over 3 half terms to build out their ideas.

Your role is about guiding, not teaching, hence the name Sherpa. The programme has been designed so that it is broken down into simple step-by-step instructions. There is no right or wrong answer in terms of completing the tasks so you don’t have to teach, it is more about guiding students through the experience and encouraging them to give it a go.

There are downloadable PowerPoint slides on the Teachers Resources page. Use these!

The best way to connect the dots between your subject and the programme is to highlight start ups working in that space. E.g. if you are teaching thematic mapping then you could use Fat Map (https://fatmap.com); they create 3D maps & guides for skiing, hiking and biking. 

We are working on a library of start ups to support different subjects but in the meantime, please email kathy@startupsherpas.co.uk and she will be able to provide some good examples. 

If a student misses a single mission, they can usually just move forward and complete the next one. They may need to make a quick decision in order to do so, e.g. select a single idea to work on. Try to encourage those students to log on themselves and complete any missed missions. 

Starting in January, the students will be working in teams so it is their team mates role to catch them up on what they have missed.

Please let us know at kathy@startupsherpas.co.uk if you are impacted by Covid, and some or all of the class are moving online. The students work in teams during Term 2 but this will be very difficult if homeschooling. We have therefore designed an individual version of the programme which can be switched on if necessary.

Term 1 missions can be found by toggling to the Term 1 project in the Workspace.