This is from Lisa....

I arrived in Hackney which looked run down in places and crime posters on most corners  There’s some noticeable investment though with a smart, renovated overground service and lots of cranes busy rebuilding the area.

The school itself was brand new - opened at Easter.  The teachers in the staff room pointed out the pile of rubble through the window that used to be the school which evidently was ‘In a terrible state’.

Hannah Grove from Inspire and the kids and teachers, clearly motivated by a fabulous new work environment, gave me a warm welcome.  I was very surprised at how polite the children were – opening doors etc - the teachers are doing a great job.

The children had set up their own card businesses, had bought the materials, designed and produced cards.   They would be selling them to other pupils tomorrow so I had to do a good job today, showing them how to advertise their cards.

I ran 2 sessions, showing the children some examples of salesforce marketing.  I used Inspire’s own training template which shows brands and logos – surprising how many the children recalled – they must watch a fair bit of TV.   I took some magazines for them to sift through the adverts – we couldn’t believe how much L’oreal spends on advertising. 

I saw some great logo and slogan designs and was delighted to see one kid that wasn’t originally participating come up with a really cool slogan and become the hero for his group called cool cards with  “Cool enough for you”.  Another very talented young girl had chosen a shooting star as the logo with ‘out of this world’ as her slogan, then clearly done a good job selling the idea to the rest of her group. 

I hope they make lots of profit tomorrow – they certainly deserve it. 

Another fab day on Foundation.