PTA of Brondesbury College for Boys
AlZarrad getting comfortable on the 3:10 to Yuma
On Saturday 22nd October, Brondesbury College for Boys and Islamia Girls' School have organised a community-fun day event promoting cultural awareness and integration amongst Brent's diverse communities.
Officers from Brent Prevent Team and local Safer Neighbourhoods Team will be attending the Islamia Girls School’s Autumn Fair.
The team will be there to engage with the community and offer crime prevention advice. During the day there will be Art and Science Workshops, BBQ, variety of stalls aswell as students from the school teaching basic computer skills to the elderly. There will be a 'Women's Pampering Zone' where there will be hair cutting, threading, head massage, henna and reflexology and a free creche for mothers using this facility. There will also be Art pieces for auction and the Primary school choir performing. There will be something that appeals to everyone!
Since November, 8 teams from our school Brondesbury College took part in the Apax Mosaic Business enterprise challenge. In this challenge we were split into teams of four. My team The Fellowship of Nova (FON) consisted of Mohammed Jihad Hasan, Musa Abdurrahman, Aamir Uddin, and Mostafa Mansour. In November we had we had to play a virtual business game in which we had to choose a product and market it, sell it and make it large enough profit. We had three tries at this and then had to create a business ethical strategy for a future car company/manufacturer. This was a task in which we had to talk about our attitude towards the environment, shareholders, customers and supplies we also had to detail how we would set up the company and what types of equipment would be used with a £100 million budget. This was the task we believe got us to the final as in the virtual game we found ourselves in second place, however Mohammed Jihad made an excellent ethical strategy which we believed propelled us into the finals and ahead of our other class mates.
In the game we did relatively well and found ourselves in second in our school due to the efforts of Mostafa Mansour and Aamir Uddin. By February we had to leave for work experience which was for a period of two weeks, when we came back at the end of February we were informed we were in the finals. We were then told of our final and most important task in which we had to compete with five other schools from all over the United Kingdom. The task was to create a real business for our school that would be beneficial, sustainable and profitable. For this we carried out some market research and did some brainstorming. We then came to the conclusion we should set up an after school club called The Fellowship of Nova in tune with our team name.
This would be a club in which we would incorporate academic support, sporting activities, and extracurricular activities. In this we would teach students leadership skills, confidence, Duke of Edinburgh as well as bringing in alumni students for careers advice and to teach students the basics about their professions. This ingenious idea was aroused by Musa Abdurrahman, after deciding to use this idea we all had to create a one minute pitch which we would present to an audience of two hundred people. In addition Mohammed Jihad as team leader created a twenty five slide power point for the business which incorporated all aspects of a professional business strategy with the assistance of Musa Abdurrahman, Aamir Uddin and Mostafa Mansour.
Once we had created this with a logo, business card, and website. We then had to pitch it to our teachers and perfected it further. On Wednesday 2nd March we and two other teachers accompanied us to Holborn and went to Lovell’s Law Firm were the final was to be held. As we walked in we were taken to a private conference room where we practiced our pitch before we did it to an audience of 200 people. As we practiced our mosaic mentors came in and gave us some more advice. Then we were told to head towards the auditorium where we and the others schools would pitch to three judges and the audience, we were told we would pitch second and made our way there. Before hand we made pacts of our PowerPoint presentation and had included our balance sheet and poster for our smoothie department. Then we pitched Mohammed Jihad went up and gave a great introduction and handed over to Musa Abdurrahman who delegated beautifully how our structure and marketing would work. Then Aamir Uddin and Mostafa Mansour once again did an excellent job and completed our pitch.
After this we heard the other teams pitches which we believed were adequate and had flaws. Then at the end we, Musa and Jihad handed the judges a sample of our smoothies which they thoroughly enjoyed. We then heard the judge’s verdict and when we heard we were in first place jumped with joy. We then went and took the Cup and cheque. We then were hurried away in large black people carriers and taken to the London Eye along with mosaic mentors Mo Chaudry and many other influential business men. After that we went in a 4D experience that we all enjoyed. We then went to Apax Equity Firm and Musa Abdurrahman was offered work experience and Mohammed Jihad a job on the spot.
Then we were taken once again the cars to 10 Downing Street were we met Mrs Cameron who had tea with us and gave the opportunity for Musa to have work experience as well as ask questions and she also asked about us.
Then we went finally to James Caan’s offices in Mayfair where we had to do our pitch to him once more. He saw its potential and discussed it with us; he also found a liking to Musa and Jihad. He also gave us signed editions of his book How to get the job you really want. We then got extra presents and were driven back to school where we were picked up by our parents.
The feeling of winning still hasn’t sunk in and we are all overwhelmed, we knew that we will and thanks to Allah we won. We all felt fantastic, over the moon and as if a large weight had been removed from our shoulders. We had enormous thanks for the Mosaic team as well as the Apax sponsorship.
We would like to thank all of them for their efforts and struggles to make our day pleasant. All of us appreciate what they did and are thankful for everything.
Mohammed Jihad Hasan- Team Leader
Musa Abdurrahman- Head of Marketing and Membership
Aamir Uddin- Head of Financials
Mostafa Mansour- Head of Operations
We would also like to thank our teachers, Mr Yousaf and Mr Ali as well of course Mr Chaudry and Mr Clifton and of course our mentor Mr. Adam and Mr. Jawad.
by Mostafa, Jihad, Aamir and Musa
