Money Matters and Enterprise with FLS Director, Alida Smith
Welcome to the world of basic economics and finance.... except fun. No, honestly. The children learn about money and then, most importantly, they try to make some!
Prior to founding FLS and working as Director of Operations and Finance, Alida worked as an editor for the Financial Times. She is a businesswoman at heart, starting her first business at 8 years old, and her brain never stops buzzing with business opportunities.
Young adults are expected to use financial products and make decisions that affect their future without any education in the fundamentals. Alida is passionate about Financial Literacy in schools and equipping children for an economically safe future, as well as encouraging the entrepreneurial spirit to take flight from a young age.
Money Matters and Enterprise Workshop at FLS - Tuesdays 1:15 - 2:15pm and 2:15 - 3:15pm
Next term at FLS, this workshop will touch on everything from household budgeting, to insurance, to credit, to inventory management, to IPOs. All centred around the children's enterprising ideas.
They will work together, listen to feedback, and find and exploit their strengths. Can they, as a team, find a demand to supply? They will use their creativity to develop ideas for products or services. They will have to be resilient - as not all ideas are good ideas; they will have to be ethical - to make sure they are creating something that will have a positive impact; and they will have to use their mathematical skills to price their products and count their profit (hopefully).
For the enterprise element they will look at product development - working together to come up with ideas of products/services to sell. They will look at all different kinds of products and work on collaborative and individual projects.
Together they will look together at a pricing strategy - how much does it cost to make/do? They will test the market - will anyone buy it? They will market products, manage inventory and calculate profits - how much have they spent, made and how shall profits be invested*?
This class is intended to introduce children to some basic economic and business concepts and then, using the real world as a playground, develop and collaborate to put real world products and services to "market".
Please note that the kids will be re-investing their income into the flexi-school!