The Chicken Project - Cherwell School

About The Chicken ProjectThe Chicken Project represents a sustainable link thathas been initially set up between The Cherwell School,Oxford and The Gcato School, South Africa. The linkfunctions around a business idea that provides thelearners of The Gcato School with practical hands onexperience focusing on their two main areas of study;business and agriculture. We believe that The ChickenProject is a unique, sustainable and replicable enterprisewhich is what makes it so beneficial. The linkwas originally established through BEFSA, a charityworking to reduce poverty through education.Phase Business AgriculturePhase 1 Chicken keeping foregg sales. Lookingat varieties of chickenswith best eggproduction levels.Crop trials todiscover the bestvarieties to grow inthe localconditions.Phase 2Phase 3Phase 4A second shed containingbirds rearedfor meat sales.(Or dual purposebreeds if available.)Purchasing ofincubators, to assistwith hatching eggsand rearing chicksfor sale.Construction of afull scale industrialsized chicken shed,employing localpeople.Continuation of allstages above.Seasonal cropcultivation withsmall scale sales tothe localcommunity.Expansion ofabove, dependenton availability ofland.Farmers markettype business,selling seeds andgoods from allprevious phases.Employing localpeople.Our Future Plans...We are also venturing into Cameroon in a new projectaimed at tackling the growing poaching problem in protectedforest areas, by providing small households of 10people with chicken coops so they don't have to hunt forbush meat, and thus reduce biodiversity in the region!Currently we are developing a pilot phase with help from alocal ranger, Divine Tanyi. Very exciting times watch thisspace for more news about this project! This link cameabout by working with Nancy Gladstone, an ex-Cherwellpupil who works with various environmental charitygroups, including SIREN and Tusk.The team are planning various fundraising projects for therest of this year—a dodge ball competition, cakes sales atparent evenings, a stall at the winter fair and franchisingthe valentines roses sold last year.The Chicken ProjectThe Cherwell SchoolMarston Ferry RoadOxfordOX2 7EE01865 558719jstuart-thompson@cherwell.oxon.sch.ukchickenproject@cherwell.oxon.sch.ukThe ChickenProjectThe Chicken Project is a unique,sustainable and repeatable enterprise,linking classrooms, communities andcountries across the globe

Achievements and News What Are We Doing Now? Where We Are Going...October 2010 —The team spoke at Prof Yong Zhao’s SSATconference in London, which was a fantastic opportunityfor us to meet and keep him up to date on how the projectwas developing. Yong Zhao was asked to be our honorarylife president in Cape Town in February 2010. Heoften speaks of our project at his many international conferences,when referring to young global entrepreneurs.‘Reaching For Gold’ at WindsorMarch 2011—we competed in the final of a competitionwhere we got to showcase our project at Windsor castle.The Reaching for Gold project has been developedby SEEDA and members of the Corporate Cabinet, supportedby Groundwork, The Prince's Trust and AbilityNet.We were thrilled to win the competition and the£3000 prize money. We were delighted that we attractedmentors from BT and Abilitynet., extending and buildingon the core values of our programme.Easter 2011—The Oxford High School in Michiganran a colouring competition amongst theirfeeder primaries and generously donated otherfunds to support the work of the chicken project.This followed a formal link between Cherwell andthe American school, led by Dr William Skilling (achicken project shareholder) the superintendentfor the education district. Our link is with Miss JillLemond and the International group she leads.Chicken Project 1 : GcatoThe first chickens arrived at Gcato in August 2010—much waslearnt including the difficulty of buying unsexed chicks, someturn into non-egg layers! The Gcato history teacher MrKhanyile visited the UK in Easter with help from a BritishCouncil grant and told us they had ordered a new batch of 22chickens. The school now has a much clearer ordering andaccounting procedure in place and the chicken-based learninghas begun again for the Business and Agriculture studentsChicken Project 2 :Umzamomhle Day CareCentreUmzamomhle in based in Aliceand seeks to equip children andyouth with special needs with the skills that could make themself reliant. They were very interested in running a chickenproject and ordered chickens in September. They currentlyhave 12 chickens. They sell the eggs to local businesses andat a local market. Children go every day to visit the chickensand have improved communication skills in a very short time.They are also visited by students from Fort Hare universitywho talk to the youngsters about keeping and caring forchickens. Ntombi keeps meticulous records of sales . Themoney is used to buy more feed, making the project sustainable.Chicken Project 3 More chickens soon !The team is currently negotiating with a third school, with the helpof Cath and Keith Borien, founders of the BEFSA charity.21st Century Learning Leadership ForumBanff, Canada, October 2011.Chicken team members spoke via a WebEx link, setup by Cisco, to delegates at a conference dedicatedto looking at student leadership and other topics.The group then kindly sent us a Flip video camerathat we can use to record our chicken work in schoolOver the summer, we decided that it was time thatour team structure was more coherent and organised.So we set about developing 7 sub teams withour newly recruited members. This new structure willhopefully help us manage the project in a more efficientway, facilitating the expansions expected.If you would likefurther informationor would liketo contribute tothe chicken projectin any way,please feel free tocontact us. Theteam would like tothank all our supportersand shareholdersin Oxford,BEFSA iNet andthe pupils, parentsstaff, and governorsin schools allover the world.