“Make it happen” was the theme for Business Studies for 2022 at Hornby High School.

Whether it was learning to overcome the challenge of making (and eating) deep fried ice cream, solving the problem that “you cannot sell a secret” with the paper-clip trade challenge, or earning the rewards BST students deserved in NCEA - taking ownership of their achievements was an important part of our Business Studies program this year.It was great to see more students taking on these challenges, understanding that knowledge, skills, and attitude are the key ingredients to making the big bucks!  Managing your money has been the focus of the financial literacy program in Year 9 and 10 this year with Hornby High School students improving their understanding of wages, tax, savings, insurance, risk, spending plans (budgets) and how the general economy works. Taking these skills into NCEA in Year 11 will be a great help for BST students in 2023.Senior students focused on being rewarded for their efforts in NCEA. They spent their timeinvestigating what people want by completing their own market research, looked at how themarketing mix applies to business success, researched the effects of a minimum wage increase on the decision for students to stay at school, analysised unemployment in Aotearoa New Zealand, investigated the recruitment process adopted by different businesses, applied all of this to understand how businesses operates AND also had time to enjoy deep fried ice cream!It’s been a big year - congratulations to those students who were awarded Business Studies prizes - Riansha, Kayden, Toby, Risha, Emalea, Garrick, Lhysette, Lionel, Sofia, Khush, Alesha and Nathan. To those of you who showed ownership of your learning and gained additional in-class BizSmart awards – well done!To everybody, I hope you enjoyed 2022, have a great break and remember the learning just doesn’t happen in school time!