Ballysloe NS Embrace Junior Entrepreneur Programme

Launch Event of GBG Sports
Ballysloe NS will launch their new GBG Sports half zip training tops as part of The Junior Entrepreneur Programme. We began this journey in January 2017 and developed it over the past 10 weeks to bring it to this stage. It all began with a very structured programme that the Junior Entrepreneur Programme Directors provided us with. Each week there are a number of things to carry out such as:

Opening the Door to Entrepreneurship:

Explore the meaning of Entrepreneur and identifying them locally, nationally and worldwide.

Exploring new Ideas:

Pupils used oral, written and visual presentations to communicate their project ideas to the Dragons. A Dragons Den Event was held in our school and one product was chosen from 3.

A Business Visitor to the classroom

Q and A Session with a local business person in our community - Tomas Gleeson from Gleeson Steel, Ballysloe.

Will the Idea work?

This consisted of market research and surveys.
Logo GBG Sports was chosen to allow everyone in the parish the opportunity to purchase these tops and make it a community event. GBG standing for Gortnahoe Ballysloe Glengoole, representing all 3 villages.

Roles and Responsibilities:

Teams are formed to get the project off the ground. Teams were: Design and Production Team, Sales Team, Finance Team, Marketing Team and Story Telling Team.

Making it all Happen :

Developing the product at design level, logo name, logo design, style of top, colour combinations, suppliers decided, photo shoot and poster design by pupils themselves, marketing of our product and promoting it through various mediums such as facebook, posters and flier and the Launch Event of GBG Sports.

Showcase Day and Programme Evaluation (Yet to happen).

So as you can see this is a very structured and educational programme which went into far more detail than outlined above. The pupils and I myself learned so much form this fantastic initiative brought about by the Junior Entrepreneur Programme. It has been such a wonderful and positive experience to date and the support and well wishes have been amazing.

So we hope that the community and businesses get behind our budding entrepreneurs in Ballysloe NS.

So get to the launch night ON THURSDAY 23RD OF MARCH AT 8PM IN GORTNAHOE COMMUNITY HALL and order your GBG Sports Top. Contact: Ballysloe NS at 056 8834533 or ballysloens@gmail.com, Or follow us on our facebook page Ballysloe National School.

Thanking you all for your support.

Derval Dunne, Principal, Ballysloe N.S