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Celebrate the Difference Conference

The second annual conference of the more innovative independent schools  - Celebrate the Difference - took place in February 2010, organised jointly by Bedales and Frensham Heights schools.

60 students and teachers met at Bedales to share ideas and good practice in social entrepreneurship. The conference aimed to:

• Get social entrepreuneurship into the mindsets of the schools attending
• Help staff and students’ understand that an ethical approach and business skills can be combined
• Identify what schools can do to provide more opportunities for students to develop an interest in social entrepreuneurship

Conference speakers

• Reed Paget, Chief Executive, Belu, and Social Entrepreneur Ambassador - Belu is the first bottled drinks company in the UK to use ‘bio-bottles’ made from corn, and the first carbon-neutral product sold at Tesco; all Belu profits are invested in clean water projects.
• Laurence Guinness, Head of campaigns, Kids Company – founded by social entrepreneur Camila Batmanghelidjh in 1996 to support vulnerable children, Kids Company was awarded the Liberty and JUSTICS Human Rights Award.
• Nick Temple, Director of Policy and Communications, School for Social Entrepreneurs – provides training and opportunities for people to use their business skills for social benefit.
• Kate Casey, Young Enterprise South East – Young Enterprise offers a range of programmes, based on the principle of ‘Learning by Doing’, which brings volunteers from business into the classroom to work with teachers and students.

Schools represented

Bedales, Dragon, Frensham Heights, King Alfred, Leighton Park, Sands, St Christopher’s

Ideas emerging from the conference included

• ethical procurement of products and services by schools and more transparency by schools of their social and environmental impact 
• development of school-based mini enterprises
• better understanding of influencing, lobbying and communications to create change
• more meetings of schools to exchange ideas and strengthen voice
• working more closely with the third sector and involvement of local communities
• associating school trips with a social legacy
• follow up conference at Frensham with Kids Company
• Understanding and communicating what success looks like - a re-calibration to focus on moral fulfilment 

Conference presentations

Reed Paget, Belu Water

Laurence Guinness, Kids Company

Nick Temple, School for Social Entrepreneurs

See Latest News section for conference press release.

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