Negotiations with hotel in community scheme (From Swindon Advertiser)

Negotiations with hotel in community scheme

9:30am Wednesday 10th March 2010 in

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SCHOOLCHILDREN played hardball with one of Swindon’s biggest hotels as part of a community scheme.

Pupils aged six to 10 from Lydiard Tregoze Primary School negotiated with manager of the De Vere Hotel in Shaw Ridge Andrew Spink to book the venue for a conference on March 31.

The conference marks the launch of a social capital credit card, which will reward primary school pupils for good deeds.

Mr Spink said: “I have just been interrogated.

“The kids were very good, they came well prepared.

“I was impressed with their understanding of what they’re doing and their application in what they wanted to achieve.”

The event and the organisation leading up to it is all part of I Belong to Swindon and has been financed by the Make Your Mark with a Tenner scheme, which loans children £10 for them to make a profit within a month.

Yesterday’s meeting lasted an hour, in which pupils and the hotel came to a mutual arrangement on hiring the venue.

Mr Spink set out the cost that would normally be charged and the school laid out what it could offer in kind.

This included a link on their website to the hotel, advertising on school minibuses, food and drink purchased on the day and media coverage of the event.

Mr Spink gave his own tactics for business negotiation.

He said: “You need to know what your bottom line is, what your walk-away point is and have a few things up your sleeve.

Launched last week, I Belong to Swindon is a business corporation set up by seven primary schools to design, finance and launch a social capital credit card.

This will allow the children to earn points on a card from work in their community, which can then be translated into vouchers that can exchanged for items in Swindon shops.

The idea is to teach children about business and investment in their community.

Drove Primary School, Rodbourne Cheney Primary School, Wroughton Infant School, Gorse Hill Infants School, Tregoze Primary School, Even Swindon Primary School and Moredon Primary School are all taking part.

All children have a share in the I Belong to Swindon company and each school is in charge of a different sector of the business.

Mr Spink said he approved of the scheme, which is being supported by Swindon’s Secret Millionaire businesswoman Caroline Marsh.

He said: “Any idea which encourages kids to look at things outside of a classroom in the real world is a good thing.”