Josef Schwarz Schule – Little entrepreneurs at JSS

Seven students from years 3 and 4 are standing in the lobby. Lined up in front of them are bags of crunchy apple crisps in different formats,  decorated with a smiling, red apple and a label advertising the JSS ‘Fruchthofkiosk’ (Fruit Yard Kiosk).

‘We designed the logo ourselves,’ explains a student named Max. The students are learning about the various stages of the sales process, from designing a logo and slogan to labelling and selling products and doing the daily accounting.

On most Fridays, it only takes an hour for all bags to sell out. Once the sales are done, the students convene to place new orders and talk about their results. ‘The students don’t always find it easy to calculate change and do their “daily accounts”,’ says Marianne Herburger, a teacher at the Josef-Schwarz-Schule and the supervisor of the project. But one of the students, Susanna, likes this part of the club best. ‘We get to use maths in real life, not just in class,’ the 10-year-old tells us. The students regularly ask for feedback from their ‘customers’ in order to improve their project further. This has given them the idea of a loyalty card: ‘If you buy twelve large bags of apple crisps, you get one for free,’ explains Susanna.

The club is active during the entire school year to provide the children with different insights into the processes of selling products and developing concepts. For each bag sold, the kids receive 40 cents. The crisps are produced by a local fruit farm and brought to the school by Anja Jungk, who is a teacher at JSS and the co-founder of the club. All profits from the campaign will contribute to a class trip.

The members of the club are planning to expand their project in the coming years and are already discussing potential additions to their product range.