March 4th, 2010
Five pupils from the Creative and Media Academy (Girls) experienced the trappings of business success today when they were picked up by luxury chauffeur driven car from the school gates to be taken to see the fruits of their labour displayed at The Sharp Project in east Manchester.
Last year pupils from three north Manchester high schools – North Manchester High School for Girls (now The Creative and Media Academy Girls), North Manchester High School for Boys (now The Creative and Media Academy Boys), and Plant Hill High School – were charged with the task of designing a building wrap on the theme of ‘Sharp Futures’ for young people. The best design from one of the three schools was to be produced and displayed on the outside of the former Sharp warehouse in Newton Heath.
Today the competition winners from the Creative and Media Academy (Girls) were driven to The Sharp Project where they will see for the first time their winning artwork draped down the outside of the building on Oldham Road. They then went on to a winners’ reception at the Crowne Plaza hotel in Manchester where their winning pitch to competition judges took place last year.
The pupils’ winning design was chosen for its clear concept, concise message, and for best meeting the design brief that was set. The competition was devised by award winning local social enterprise company MOTIV as part of their ongoing partnership work with The Sharp
Project. This involves giving fourteen year olds valuable experience working on real life projects whilst they are still in school that will benefit them when they leave school and have to put together their CVs for future employers.
Competition judges included Sir Richard Leese, Leader of Manchester City Council; Sharp Director Susan Woodward; local entrepreneur David Derbyshire, Director of successful local business Astra Signs; and Lee Stanley, Director of award winning social enterprise, MOTIV.
Sue Woodward said: “The idea of Sharp Futures is to engage fourteen year old pupils now so that by the time they do leave school they have an armful of real projects they have delivered on their CV giving the best opportunity for their future. They were given a real design brief and the mural ideas they presented were outstanding.”
The competition was sponsored by Astra Signs who agreed to produce a large scale impressive building wrap, based on the winning artwork from the school that came up with the most inspiring artwork, for The Sharp Project on Oldham Road.
Manchester City Council and New East Manchester is transforming the former Sharp warehouse in east Manchester into a new centre for creative and digital industries – offering talented starters, young entrepreneurs and established professionals the opportunity to develop and prototype their ideas in a purpose-built environment that provides unrivalled access to very high speed broadband connections.
Sir Richard Leese said: “The finished artwork is really stunning and something that each of the pupils involved in should be really proud of. The Sharp Futures project goes to the heart of innovative and creative Manchester, giving the opportunity to our young people, in this case from North Manchester, to show what they can do, and to see what doors might open for them in the future if they put the work in. Great stuff!”
For more information about The Sharp Project please visit www.thesharpproject.co.uk
Sharp Project MD Sue Woodward and Astra Signs MD David Derbyshire with the MCMA pupils in front of the banner.
MCMA pupils presented with their own mini Sharp Futures banners at Crowne Plaza Manchester
The pupils enjoy ‘mocktails’ at Crowne Plaza Manchester
The Sharp Futures banner design
February 26th, 2010
Pupils across Oldham are being rewarded for their school attendance this week with designer 100% badges from Crayola and Ben Sherman.
In support of The 100% Challenge Oldham Athletic mascot Chaddy The Owl visited Limehurst Primary and Limeside Primary this week to distribute badges to pupils who’d completed The 100% Challenge in the first half term.
The badges form part of The MOTIV 100% Challenge supported by Oldham Council. The 100% Challenge rewards pupils who get to school on time, every day, all term. They receive exclusively designed badges at each half-term if they do so, and if they complete a full Spring term every pupil receives a reward tailored to their year group and their school. The Challenge operates on two levels: 100% attendance and 100% effort for attendance. This dual approach celebrates the achievements of everyone, from hard-working, responsible pupils to those who make a significant effort to improve their attendance record.
Pupils will be rewarded at the end of term with Crayola colouring packs, and MOTIV Reward Cards including Hollywood Bowl Family tickets, free entrance to Laser-ace, Asylum Paintballing and OAFC match day tickets. Additional family rewards can also be won and include family meals at YO! Sushi, Nando’s and an exclusive family film screening at the ODEON cinema.
“Attendance habits are formed at an early age and by celebrating achievements with small but meaningful rewards it encourages peers to aspire. Families are a really important part of the equation and by offering rewards that appeal to parents or guardians we can ensure the whole school gets behind The 100% Challenge”
Mrs H. Arya, Headteacher, Limeside Primary
“Oldham Athletic Football Club are delighted to be supporting The MOTIV 100% Challenge in Oldham for the third year in row. Good attendance is as important at the football club as it is in school – to be a professional footballer you have to attend training and matches every week on time and this enables them to be the best they can be.”
James Mwale, Inclusion Co-ordinator, Oldham Athletic Football Club.
Pupils at Limeside Primary with their 100% badges & attendance certificates
February 23rd, 2010
The MOTIV 100% Challenge was this week nominated for ‘Best Marketing Campaign’ in The 2010 Football League Awards, as a result of our work over the last 12 months with Nottingham Forest Football Club.
MOTIV’s work with Forest has included the ‘Sports Reporter For A Day’ Experience as well as Forest providing family match day tickets as extra rewards for pupils who successfully completed The 100% Challenge in Nottingham.
Nottingham Forest have been nominated for 5 categories at the awards and in announcing the shortlists Football League Chairman, Lord Mawhinney, said: “The annual Football League Awards gives us the opportunity to recognise excellence both on and off the field. I congratulate all clubs who have made the shortlists for this year’s event. The number and quality of entries has been outstanding.”
Expert judging panels were assembled for each category including representatives of the media, the sports industry and The Football League.
The Football League Awards will, once again, recognise footballing excellence on and off the field, with clubs and players honoured alongside fans. There will be 19 award categories in total, including a range of football awards and industry-specific honours.
To find out more about The Football League Awards, and for a full list of Award categories, please visit www.footballleagueawards.com.
December 17th, 2009
Pupils from the schools across Greater Manchester were recently given a golden opportunity to pitch their ideas for a news feature to Channel M Today, at The Channel M Experience, hosted by URBIS. It was the final event from the MOTIV 100% Challenge which ran across Greater Manchester schools in Spring Term 2009. Read the rest of this entry »
July 1st, 2009
We have now made live the finalists for the ‘Painting Brighter Futures’ challenge which was open to primary schools across Salford as part of The Attendance Challenge 2009. Read the rest of this entry »
July 1st, 2009
MOTIV, Cafédirect and Yes Pure Intimacy win the Triodos Women in Ethical Business Awards 2009
To read more about all of the inspiring finalists and watch short films of the stars of the show click here.
The winners have been announced for the best female led ethical businesses in Britain: the Ethical Business category has been won by Anne MacCaig, CEO, Cafédirect; Ethical Small Business winners are Sarah Brooks and Susi Lennox, Yes Pure Intimacy and the Ethical Entrepreneur awards has gone to Rose Marley, CEO, MOTIV. Winners were announced last night at a special awards ceremony in London. Read the rest of this entry »
July 1st, 2009
July 2009
Chefs from YO! Sushi were on hand at Berridge Junior School in Nottingham yesterday to talk to pupils about how important it is to develop good punctuality as a life skill. The creative demonstration was in celebration of the improvements in punctuality the school has made as part of The Attendance Challenge. Read the rest of this entry »
