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Competency Curriculum Chocolate Challenge!

Our Year 7 students have been putting all of their TRICs knowledge into action by becoming Abbot Beynes very own Willy Wonkas! They have been creating and managing their own chocolate companies. The overall aim of the task was to assess how well the students could utilise their skills with the TRICs as part of a two week assessment. Students were divided into mixed groups based on their TRICs ability. Their overall objective was to work as part of a team to create a brand new chocolate product, which they would design, make, advertise and eventually pitch to a group of dragons including our very own Mr Church in a Dragons Den style challenge. Each group was given a list of roles which they had to independently assign to their group members. These included Company Director, Product Designer, Factory Manager, Chief Advertiser and Research Manager. Students were encouraged to choose responsibilities that would not only engage them but enable them to improve their TRICs skills. For example, those students less confident at taking the lead when working as part of a team were given the opportunity to lead their team as Company Director.

With roles and responsibilities allocated it was time to get to work! Firstly, students had to decide on a name for their company. LIKKL Chocolate Company and Cocoa Hama were two of the names created by students to represent the names of their group members. The creativity across groups was excellent and they went on to design company logos, slogans, adverts and model chocolate factories.

The iPads proved extremely valuable for this assessment with year 7. They allowed the students to carry out research on existing chocolate products from the classroom. They managed to price their products and decide on the best advertising strategies through internet research. The iMovie app was used to create exciting trailers and advertisements, a quick and easy tool that allows students to independently record and create short films. Throughout the assessment the students ability to be independent was vital. Each team was only allowed to ask a teacher two questions a lesson and we issued help cards to assist with this. The students had to try not to use their help cards thus encouraging them to make all decisions and solve any problems for themselves. It was fantastic to see them making a conscious effort not to ask for help and most groups did not use a single help card!

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The students were encouraged by teachers to reflect at regular intervals. We held company board meetings where Company Directors had to discuss with their team what they had achieved as a group. This enabled students to reflect on the work and progress of their team. We used the WWW and EBI model and they were given time to use reflections to make any necessary changes. The Dragons Den final took place as a year 7 event in Evershed Hall. One team from each Competency class took turns to pitch their new product to the dragons. Completing the chocolate challenge with a year event had a significant impact on the students. Not only could they visualise what they had achieved but it gave them a sense of belonging to a school community. The atmosphere was fantastic and for many of the students it was the first time they had experienced presenting to their year group and their confidence soared as a result. The chocolate challenge epitomised the TRICs, team work, reflection, independence and creativity, allowing the students to further develop into outstanding learners. All students displayed fantastic effort which left us feeling very proud of what they had achieved.