We have been working in this area for several years through such programs as:

• Grade 4 “Year in the Yard” students grow and sell their produce and chickens eggs to the College community to self fund the care of the chickens and vegetable gardens
• Grade 5 and 6 financial literacy program called, “Benson Bucks”. Here, students learn the fundamentals of economics, financial literacy and business, even setting up micro businesses for several “market days” through the year. Using their “Benson Bucks” currency and economy, students are paid for their work, have expenses such as paying rent for their desk spaces and can even get fined for tardiness or misdemeanours – the students are very engaged with this immersive experience!
• Year 7 & 8 Business and Entrepreneurial Studies elective where students build on the Benson Bucks experiences. They identify an opportunity for a product or service they can create or develop, market this to the school community, look to make sales and reflect on the process.
• Missions Prefects coordinate fundraisers for organisations such as “Destiny Rescue” and to support the Missional work in our Missions trips.

We are very excited to take this further with our new “E School” experience for Year 7 to 9 students, beginning in 2021. All Year 7 to 9 students will work in the “E School”, which stands for Entrepreneurial and Enterprise School. In the E School, students will learn to innovatively, creatively and ethically solve real world problems and communicate these solutions, develop an understanding of economics, business and leadership, plan and set up businesses as appropriate, all while building skills to work independently and collaboratively with others.

Throughout the year they will be learning and applying the Heatherton “Essential Life Skills for the 21st Century” – Character, Citizenship, Communication, Creativity, Critical thinking, Collaboration, Connectivity and Computational thinking.

Our future plan is that students will work on these problems and projects with guidance from business mentors – and that this E School experience will potentially lead to a VCE / VET pathway in Entrepreneurship and Business for those who wish to pursue this – more on this as it unfolds.