Colton Hills Community School

Here is a case study we received from Dorra Oleschuk, the Big Ideas programme lead teacher at Colton Hills Community School,
Wolverhampton, which has participated in the programme in for the last five years:

When I started at Colton Hills Community School, it was the first time I had heard about Solution for the Planet. I was so intrigued that I contacted Sarah (as she was the West Midlands Programme Coordinator), and, even though we had missed the deadline to apply for the programme this year, I asked her to let us join again.

I had a feeling that I would enjoy the experience. I decided to give a chance not only to the bright students, so I opened up the door to every student in our Key Stage 3 classes, regardless of their educational performance or their language ability.

This year we had nine teams submit a business plan – the biggest number from the school in many years! All the teams who completed a business plan learned a lot from the experience.

They learned how to work as a team. Lunch time for the two months before the school closed (due to the coronavirus outbreak) was an opportunity for the teams to progress and build up their ideas.

The best part was when we moved to the online competition, as I saw how my students are growing to understand better and better how to build their ideas. We were fortunate to have five teams get through to the regional finals stage. Iit was chaotic at a times but I saw the commitment of the students and I felt it helped the students to stay in contact with me and stay focused. They learned how it is important to work under the pressure of the deadlines.
I personally I felt I learned many things as a person, and I encourage every school to be part of this amazing programme where the sky is the limit for every student’s ideas.