Lord Mayor joins in ‘Novembuzz’ at celebratory event for Swansea education business

2B Enterprising, the creators of the enterprise education resource series, The Bumbles of Honeywood, have held a celebratory event to mark their first year in business.

The event was attended by school children, teachers, partner businesses and the Lord Mayor of Swansea, Cllr Mike Day.

The reception, which took place at Morgan’s Hotel in Swansea, also provided 2B Enterprising with a chance to share news of the brand new resources that are being developed for older primary school children and to talk about the plans for future growth. 

2B Enterprising has founded The Bumbles of Honeywood learning resources which help to teach young children about enterprise, entrepreneurship, and essential life skills by following the Bumble Family of bees from Honeywood as they tackle a range of challenges together. As well as teaching the next generation about the world of business, the resources touch on a wide range of themes including sustainability, wellbeing, diversity and inclusion.

Primary schools can apply to receive The Bumbles of Honeywood resources and are able to access them by being partnered with a local business who can also bring insights from their own organisation into the school to elevate the learning experience even further.  

Children and teachers from Ysgol Bae Baglan and St David’s Primary School were on hand at the event to deliver presentations about what they had learned from using the resources.

The schools, which have been partnered with Mrs Bucket Cleaning Services and Swansea Building Society, respectively, have been impressed by the quality and range of resources available and how easy they are to integrate into the classroom.

As part of The Bumbles of Honeywood programme, the children have been involved in an enterprise project where they have designed and produced honey and bee related products, including honey slime, that has been sold to the entire school community to raise money for charity.

Jane Parker from Swansea Building Society also spoke at the event about the positive impact that their involvement has had on the team. As well as supporting the school by funding the programme, several members of staff have been present for the lessons and have worked together with the pupils, helping them through their tasks.

Jayne Brewer, CEO of 2B Enterprising, comments: “We wanted to gather all of our partners, investors and stakeholders together to celebrate a great first year and to thank them for their support and engagement.

“We have ambitious growth plans and after celebrating our first anniversary in September, we have already accelerated our roll out of the programme, bringing on more partner businesses and engaging with more schools.

“It was wonderful to hear from the children and teachers of Ysgol Bae Baglan and St David’s Primary School. The children, some of whom were only five years old, spoke confidently about what they had learned and their favourite aspects of The Bumbles of Honeywood.

“We are thrilled that so many of our partner businesses have not only renewed their relationship with their school for another year but many are also partnering with multiple schools after seeing just how beneficial this programme is to both the schools and to their own businesses. 

“We were proud to announce our 100^th Business Partner at the event – JCP Solicitors who are partnering with St Illtyds Primary School.”

The fifteen-strong team at 2B Enterprising deliver lessons in schools as well as develop the relationships between businesses and schools. The package is attractive to schools as enterprise education is on the new Welsh curriculum and The Bumbles of Honeywood satisfies this requirement. All resources are bilingual and 2B Enterprising has dedicated Welsh speaking delivery officers.

In the last year, 2B Enterprising has engaged corporate partners in sectors as diverse as construction, hospitality, finance, technology, retail and tourism.

Businesses including Bluestone Resorts, Sony, University of Wales Trinity St Davids, National Grid and CK Foodstores have supported schools throughout south Wales.

The current growth strategy will see the company expand further along the M4 corridor and into England.