Vision and Mission
Our vision is that through education, young people develop the enterprising and entrepreneurial knowledge mind set and behaviours that are relevant to the challenges and opportunities of the 21st century. To achieve this, our mission is to work with educators so they can create and strengthen enterprising and entrepreneurial teaching and learning for all young people, through the curriculum.
Teachers and Head Teachers who work with us tell us that this approach helps develop young people so they can lead rewarding and fulfilling lives by enabling them to:
- Have a sense of belonging and purpose in their community
- Develop a love for lifelong learning
- Connect with the world of work and business that they will one day move into
- Develop enterprise capability, financial capability and economic and business understanding
- See and make opportunities
Our team
Ready Unlimited is a small team that makes a big impact.
Managing Director and principal consultant Catherine Brentnall works with between 300 – 500 teachers and Head Teachers every year, from all phases and across the UK and abroad. Clients often work with Catherine over many years and she has developed a Ready Strategy which describes the types of interventions she provides for different stages of a school’s improvement journey. Catherine spent several years developing and scaling the award winning enterprise programme Rotherham Ready; launching Derbyshire Ready, Hull Ready and several other programmes across the country to engage teachers in the development of entrepreneurial learning. More recently she has worked for clients including the OECD, the EU and the Macedonian Government. Her unique combination of skills and expertise enable her to bridge the gap between academic entrepreneurial learning theory and practice by effecting real change in classrooms.
Contact Catherine
catherine@readyunlimited.com
07825 125 438
Impact
We support educators to create enterprising and entrepreneurial learning, curricula and culture in order to help young people develop the enterprising and entrepreneurial knowledge, mindset and behaviours that will help them in learning and life.
Ready Unlimited is different because it:
- Strategically integrates enterprising and entrepreneurial learning into school life by changing how teachers think about and plan learning.
- Focuses on harnessing entrepreneurial pedagogy and culture to improve the quality of teaching, learning and education.
- Transforms the engagement and motivation of staff and pupils.
- Creates a substantial legacy by developing educators that are enterprising (rather then making enterprise activity dependent on external providers).
- Enables deep partnerships between schools, young people, communities and businesses.
- Provides young people with knowledge, mind sets and behaviours they need for living and working in the 21st century.
Since 2005 we have worked with hundreds of schools, colleges, universities and local authorities to develop and refine approaches that integrate enterprising and entrepreneurial learning into all phases of education.
This experience enables us to support educators quickly and effectively review and innovate their practice and provision, whatever their setting.
We have developed, and continue to refine an ‘Impact Evaluation Framework’ where we triangulate evidence from Head Teachers and Teachers to identify clear development points and reflect on links between action and outcome. This also enables educators to identify and measure changes in practice and provision to support continuous development opportunities.
Over the years our work has been scrutinised by Ofsted and academics, and we undertake our own research to help us understand and improve our impact.
Ofsted has highlighted that teachers involved in our programmes were developing good and outstanding learning that was leading to young people who were confident and enthused (Ofsted Subject Survey Inspection 2008 ‘Evaluation of Rotherham Ready Enterprise Initiative’).
An independent evaluation of our early work noted our impact on school culture and curriculum and the motivation of teachers and students (MTL, 2009, Rotherham Ready Evaluation).
Ofsted highlighted our work as a case study of good practice in its subject survey inspection report in 2011 (Ofsted, 2011, Economics, business and enterprise education. A summary of evidence: April 2007 to March 2010).
Ethnographic research into our work by Esro Ltd illustrated how enterprise education can be used as a building block for more enterprising communities and helping develop more entrepreneurial young people (Esro Ltd, 2013, ‘Are we ready?).
The University of Sheffield’s Centre for Regional Economic and Enterprise Development (CREED) completed a process evaluation on our Ready Hubs model, finding it built the capacity and resources of educators and other stakeholders to work together to create more enterprise learning opportunities for more young people (Creed 2013 Rotherham’s Enterprise Entitlement – The Ready Hub model).
The Innovation Unit analysed Ofsted reports and interviewed Head Teacher involved in our programmes and presented some impact headlines including how our work impacts positively on the ethos and practice of schools.
Catherine Brentnall analysed Ofsted reports and interviewed Head Teachers involved in Derbyshire Ready and observed that 95 % of schools inspected had positive comments about enterprising teaching, learning or projects, and that Derbyshire Ready schools were twice as likely to have gone up an Ofsted grade than non-participating schools (Brentnall, C. 2014, How much does the development of enterprise education contribute to the quality of a school? An initial study based on Ofsted Inspection Reports and the perceptions of Head Teachers).
Our participating schools have achieved a variety of national standards including the Warwick Award for Excellence in Enterprise, the Warwick Platinum Award, the country’s first Leading Aspect Award for the quality of its enterprising curriculum and various regional and national teaching awards for leadership and enterprise.
Ready Unlimited has pioneered new approaches to measuring the impact of its work on schools. Harnessing existing tools created by Lappeenranta University of Technology, Warwick Centre for Education and Industry and working with the former Ofsted Business and Enterprise lead David Butler to create survey instruments for school leaders, teachers and young people.
Following a visit in 2014 Ofsted developed a good practice case study on Herringthorpe Infants School, which was recently graded outstanding.
We work formally and informally with a range of entrepreneurial education and research professionals, organisations and academics to scrutinise and improve approaches to entrepreneurial learning and capture its impact. Please get in touch if you would like to learn more or get involved.
