Kilgraston Young Enterprise Team historic win
Hungry For Honey, a young enterprise company founded by 23 Kilgraston pupils, has created a buzz with an unprecedented victory at the Young Enterprise Scotland (YES) regional competition. The team swept the board at the event, picking up all eight awards on offer including the top prize ‘Tayside Company of the Year 2024’ for their children’s book ‘Barbee and Her Adventures’ – a result never before achieved by any other school. The team also scooped the seven other awards including for ‘Best Company Report’, ‘Best Trade Stand’ and ‘Best Presentation’. The team, comprised of Upper and Lower Sixth pupils, impressed the judges with their innovative and sustainable approach to their business, as well as their exceptional marketing and presentation skills.
Hungry for Honey was created to compete in the annual YES Company competition. This provides students with hands-on experience in setting up and running their own businesses. Since the start of the 2023 school year, the Kilgraston team has worked hard to develop their book ‘Barbee and Her Adventures’ including a novel-writing workshop with local children’s author, Lindsay Hirst.
Kilgraston School’s Headteacher, Mrs Tanya Davie, expressed her pride in the team’s achievements, saying, “We are absolutely thrilled with Hungry for Honey’s success at the YES regional championships. Their hard work, creativity, and dedication to sustainable business practices have truly paid off, and we can’t wait to see what they will accomplish at the national level.”
Now as they prepare for the national finals in May, Hungry for Honey continues to inspire the Kilgraston School community and demonstrate the power of young people to create positive change through entrepreneurship and innovation.
The team’s book is available to buy in several local shops, including The Rose House in Perth, Broadslap Fruit Farm in Dunning, and The Wee Book Shop in Dollar. A beautifully illustrated children’s book, it tells the story of a special bee called, Barbee. The company’s team collaborated on the story, with some taking on the role of illustrators while others focused on writing. The team also utilised social media platforms like Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, and Facebook to market their book and reach a wider audience.
Kilgraston pupil and Hungry for Honey CEO, Rebecca, Upper Sixth, said: “We’re thrilled to see our hard work pay off with this success and we are excited for the finals. Our team has worked tirelessly to create a high-quality product that appeals to children, and we’re excited to share it with even more people through the YES competition and expanded retail opportunities.”
Hungry For Honey’s future plans include expanding their reach to more shops and nurseries, as well as developing additional products that align with their mission of educating and entertaining young readers.
For more information on Hungry For Honey and their products, follow them on social media at Instagram handle is hungry.for_honey, Twitter handle is hungry_4_honey, Tiktok handle is hungry_for_honey and Facebook handle is Hungry For Honey
Kilgraston YES team 2023 win regional final
Kilgraston YES team 2023 win regional final - find out more:
On Thursday 23rd March – the Young Enterprise Team (MIKA) and fellow supporters from the sixth form travelled to Forbes of Kingennie Country Resort in Dundee to compete in the Tayside Young Enterprise Regional Finals Competition.
Prior to this we had been interviewed by a panel of judges and submitted a company report to the judges. On the evening we had to present our company journey to a room full of competing teams, supporters and local businesses. MIKA put forward Kate, Rebecca, Jessica and Flora, all Lower Sixth to present and afterwards Jessica, Upper Sixth, took questions from the audience.
MIKA came home with 5 out of the 9 awards on offer during the evening.
We won:
• Best Interview
• Best Company Report
• Best Link Teacher – Mrs Docherty
• Most inspirational journey – Sara, Lower Sixth
• Company of the year
We are delighted to have won the Tayside Regional Final Competition and look forward to competing at Scottish Nationals at Hampden Park on 31st May.
Flora, Lower Sixth
Kilgraston Speech Day 2022
Kilgraston’s Speech Day 2022 was celebrated this year amidst sunshine and thunderstorms, smiles and tears.
It was the busiest Speech Day in many years as parents and families flocked to celebrated the successes of pupils, and well done to all of you for the many merits, cups and ribbons distributed.
This year’s Speech Day was the first to be experienced by Kilgraston’s Headteacher, Mrs Davie, who congratulated the pupils and in particular the 2022 leavers for their impressive results with 67% going on to prestigious Russell Group universities and with a 100% Oxbridge success.
Our guest speaker this year was Hannah Ovens, who has been mentoring Kilgraston’s Young Enterprise teams for the past three years. Hannah gave an inspiring speech detailing her own non-traditional route to success which was driven by hard work and boundless enthusiasm. Pupils were hanging on her every word as she talked to them about beating 38,000 candidates to become NCR CEO for 24 hours. Hannah imparted four must-dos to succeed, these are:
- Believe in yourselves.
- Never give us because hard work pays off.
- Make sure you have a great support system.
- Say yes to all opportunities because one yes can change the path you are on.
Kilgraston’s outgoing Head Girl, Maria also gave a moving Speech. Maria, who has been at Kilgraston for 15 years, spoke directly to her Upper Sixth peers, encouraging them on as “we stand on the precipice of the next stage of our lives as the uncontested authors of their lives”. We all look forward to reading the next chapter from all our leavers so stay in touch, sign up as an alumnae and we wish you all the very best of luck.
Kilgraston’s Business Management teacher Mr Erdal retires
Kilgraston’s Business Management teacher, Mr Erdal, is retiring and here Dr Phillips talks about the impact he has had on the school:
Mr Erdal joined Kilgraston as Head of Business Management three years ago and quickly made himself a fixture of the Kilgraston Staff Room, having previously taught at Glenalmond since 2002. There are, however, many other strings to Mr Erdal’s bow. Did you know, for example, that he ran his own outdoor events company for a decade prior to going into teaching? Or that he enjoys a possibly lucrative sideline in skippering yachts for corporate clients? Or that he was an extra in Highlander?
We always encourage students to get involved in extra-curricular activities because that is what they will remember most about their school life, but I suspect that might be the case with Mr Erdal as well. Surely his greatest legacy will be in co-ordinating this year’s Young Enterprise group, Jute Joy, to their successful haul of nine trophies in the regional championships. So it only seems fit to leave the final word to once of the members of Jute Joy. Anna T said: “Mr Erdal steered us in the right direction when first setting up our company, and gave us a push when we needed the wind in our sails. We wish him a very happy retirement.