Aintree is a racing cert for Maricourt High School

As part of Maricourt High School’s long-standing relationship with Aintree Racecourse the school were finally able to hold its annual enterprise activities this term for its Year 9 and 10 students.

Normally, students in Year 8 would have an enterprise session delivered by staff from Aintree Racecourse and Racing to Schools in the summer term. This couldn’t happen due to COVID-19 restrictions but thankfully they were able to rearrange this to happen this term so that students didn’t miss out on developing essential entrepreneurial capabilities and employability skills.

The enterprise session focused on literacy and creative writing as students became journalists for the day. Students were given the choice of creating a headline and newspaper article for two different stories. They worked together to write their article, come up with a catchy headline and make their work look like a real newspaper.

This year many of the groups focused on Rachael Blackmore’s historic Grand National win with Minella Times, as she became the first female jockey to win the world’s most famous horse race. It was also an unusual year in that no guests were allowed in to watch the race due to the pandemic.

All groups had to present their article to a judge with a quick presentation. The judges then decided on the best work to present their articles to the entire room. During this activity they developed teamwork, communication and literacy skills as well as having fun and got the chance to win a fantastic prize for them and their families to visit a race day at Aintree Racecourse courtesy of The Jockey Club.

Assistant headteacher, Danielle Lawler said: “The Year 10 Enterprise session has a more business led focus. Students must work together to plan how to spend a marketing budget and then produce a range of promotional material to entice people to attend the annual Becher Chase race day in December. The event is the only other race day where horses race over some of the Grand National fences.

“It also has a Christmas theme which meant students could be creative with how that would help attract people to the event. As well as creativity students also had to show financial literacy skills for how best to spend their budget to promote the event. Each group then has to present their ideas, the best ones have to present in front of everyone and then an overall winner is decided with another fantastic prize up for grabs.

“We are very proud of and thankful for our relationship with such a fantastic, world-famous, yet local institution that is right on our doorstep. Our students are lucky enough to get involved with Aintree Racecourse from Year 7 and have the opportunity to learn from them in every year of school, right up until they leave.

“From mathematic focused visits in Year 7 to careers education in Year 9 and 11 with the enterprise sessions in between, there is genuinely something for everyone and we look forward to continuing our partnership with them for many more years to come.”