Case studies

These are the case studies of the first 10 Social Enterprise Schools to complete the award.

Inverness High School

Real Education, Active Lives or REAL, is name of Inverness High School Community Interest Company. Within the school grounds nearly an acre of land has been cultivated and three polytunnels created to allow the students to gain a real education of agriculture and business by becoming active in the growing and selling of a range of produce. Within the view of the schools classrooms salad leaves, cabbages, spinach, onions and beetroot are grown organically (the farm is aiming for Soil Association accreditation next year) and eventually sold in the local community and to other organisations such as Raigmore Hospital. Students are not just passive observers of this business however and the roots of the farm’s produce have spread into many aspects of the school curriculum. The harvest, therefore, from the farm is not merely fresh produce but real business and rural skills to last a lifetime. A healthier diet is also guaranteed as the produce is served up in the school kitchen at lunchtime; with all the waste completing a natural cycle by returning to the land as compost, helping to nourish the next crop and the next generation of social entrepreneurs.

Carrongrange School

Carrongrange Catering was initiated in 2007 to help provide a real working environment for the pupils of Carrongrange School in Falkirk. With the special ingredient of the pupil’s enthusiasm the business rose quickly and they now boast a highly regarded and professionally run catering and conference services on site at the school for customers from the local authority. The students at Carrongrange are involved in all aspects of the business from the sourcing of supplies to providing face-to-face hospitality services. The value of these transferable business skills as well as the improved self-esteem, that Carrongrange Catering provides its members, has proven to be a real bonus for the school. It is a social firm that already has its mind set on expanding to pastures new, including the beautiful Muiravonside Country Park.

Buckhaven Primary School

Buckhaven Primary School have proven that age is no barrier for entry into social enterprise. Despite their lack of years the school’s team of 8 year old entrepreneurs demonstrated their local pride by designing, producing, and selling out of calendars featuring members of the local community. Camaraderie and team spirit developed alongside the calendar as the group pulled together to manage all the aspects of the business including the photography and promotion. The group also made sure that their social business left as light a carbon footprint as possible, employing extensive research to unearth existing resources within the school avoiding wastage wherever possible. All the hard work was rewarded as the community of this formerly thriving fishing port in Fife snapped up every copy.

Stonelaw High School

From a tuck shop contained drawer in a filing cabinet in a classroom at Stonelaw High School students have established a thriving social enterprise with a turnover of £62,000 in just over four years. The business team at this proud secondary school in Rutherglen, known as Stonelaw Fair Traders, emerge from all year groups. Their raison d’être is to run a business which proves that success can exist without exploitation of producer groups, especially in the developing world. The products which once filled the drawer have spilled out onto the tables at coffee mornings, parents’ evenings, Christmas fairs and during the celebration of Fair Trade Fortnight. However, the activities and the reach of Stonelaw Fair Traders does not end with the nurturing of community links between school and local community. The social benefits of their social enterprise also reach AIDS orphans in the province of Kwazula Natal in eastern South Africa who provide the fair traders with regular updates on the improvements that their money has brought.

Sinclairtown Primary School

There is hope for the British press yet with the establishment of The Sinclairtown Times – the official newspaper of Sinclairtown Primary School. The grounds of Sinclairtown Primary have always provided wonderful views of the Firth of Forth but now pupils and residents of the area can now feast their eyes on a newspaper. Run by a group of thirty-one primary seven pupils, the newspaper reports on all aspects of school life and bridges the communication gap between the school and the local community. Each member of the group has a vital part to play and roles such as editors, reporters, photographers and writers are undertaken. The newspaper and the enterprise have not only raised the profile and image of the school in the local community but also provided its producers with hard-to-come-by media, writing and team-working skills.

Rutherglen High School

Rutherglen High School has yet to celebrate its tenth birthday but it is already celebrating its Social Enterprise School award. This is a fantastic achievement for a school of only 70 students. The enterprise, Rutherglen High Fair Trade Group, runs its successful Enterprise Cafe once a month with an emphasis on healthy eating, alongside a thriving fair trade shop in the school. The cafe tries to imbue in its visitors and workers a holistic viewpoint of the food we eat by emphasising the environmental and ethical impact of our choices through the sourcing of local and fair trade produce and products. Through working at RHFTG students gain essential work skills including SVQ qualifications and some of them will be adding the SES award to the food handling certificate they recently attained.

Old Rayne Primary School

In the rural community of Old Rayne in Aberdeenshire, the local primary school with a roll of only 48 pupils established the Old Rayne Community Café to bring together people from the local village. With the nearest coffee shop a four mile round trip by car, the pupil council at the school were concerned that that although new children to the village integrated well and made new friends through school, their parents did not have the same opportunities to meet and mix with the rest of the village. The café is run by the pupils in school every Friday afternoon during term time and provides what every good café should- a place to meet others and enjoy tea, coffee and home baking and it has proved to be very popular. As well as the café, the pupils also run a Fairtrade stall and profits from both the stall and the café are used to purchase school equipment for Milo School in Malawi. Last year they raised £600 which paid for new amenities for their sister school.

Lossiemouth High School

Healthy living may not be everybody’s idea of rock’n’roll but the students at Lossiemouth High School think otherwise. Their social enterprise Lossie Rocks Production Company was established as a vehicle to try to get young people in their area to play to the right tune with issues such as health and social issues. The group set up a series of Rock Challenges, inviting pupils along from the local cluster of primary schools in their corner of Moray. The students in the business took on all aspects of managing the events from set design and make-up to stage management and publicity. The gigs incorporated information about healthy lifestyle choices for the attendees for now and the future. After a couple of sell out performances, the group realised that they were looking at a viable income stream springing up from and running alongside their social message and, of course, the music. Profit then harmonised with community benefit and fun and a social enterprise was born.

Lenzie Academy

Students have received a good start in life at Lenzie Academy since 1886. Now, in 2008, a group of senior students decided to help provide the same to young people in a Malawi school through there Young Enterprise Company, and now social enterprise, Venture YES. A group of S6 students subscribed to the notion of ‘trade not aid’ and felt that sending charitable donations to communities in Malawi was not enough. Their alternative proposal was to design hand-made products such as finger puppets and fridge magnets which could be manufactured by students in Malawi and then marketed by Venture in East Dumbartonshire. Central to their business idea was the avoidance of any exploitation, ensuring that their partners in Malawi were paid a fair price. A delegate from the group used a pre-planned trip to Malawi to take a blueprint of the designs to their school to teach them about the construction of the products – all of which were designed to raise the awareness of endangered species. With smart marketing and the use of locally-sourced and environmentally friendly materials sustainability was key for Venture and the next stage for them is passing the baton of the enterprise after they leave Lenzie Academy for the next stage of their lives.

Glencryan Special School

Glencryan School’s social enterprise ‘Bridging the Gap’ sets out to increase the employability skills of its young people. The impressive cluster of social businesses which include a bistro, a laundry and a horticulture service are staffed by seventy five senior pupils. The services are highly regarded and widely used by parents, staff, school visitors and the general public. The different roles undertaken by the young people throughout the various business strands enable them to test their skills and maximise their potential. Through their work roles, the young people have the opportunity to gain recognised qualifications such as the SQA Core Skills as well as SVQ’s and City and Guilds enhancing their prospects for when they leave school.