BP teaches Manor Park students how to trade oil

Year 10 students at Little Ilford School experienced a day in the life of a high-flying business trader from employees at oil giant BP.

The Trading Challenged Roadshow dropped in on the Manor Park school to run two workshops, one aimed at teachers and the other pupils, to implement science and maths into the curriculum in a fresh and exciting way.

The students took part in the Roadshow which is designed for young people between the ages of 14 to 19 as a microcosm of the trading in global commodities such as oil.

The fast-paced trading game was presented by trained employees of British Petroleum (BP) which involved students trading oil, reacting to market news and managing budgets to make a profit and work well as a team.

Mr Gatchi, a curriculum leader in the Maths Department, said: “The BP Maths challenge really gave students the opportunity to apply their Maths in a real-life oil trading scenario.

“The students were excited and very competitive. What I particularly enjoyed was how the students had to anticipate the effect of Global News on the future price of oil.”

Year 10 students seemed to find the business experience rewarding, describing the workshop as “exciting and challenging” and saying that the exercise improved their team working skills, their problem solving abilities and their leadership skills.

Science teachers also went on a one-day course called Talk Science, delivered by the Science Museum, in which they were trained to use innovative techniques to encourage a dialogue and debate in classrooms about contemporary science issues and generally improve enthusiasm for science.

The workshop was created in consultation with the London 2012 Organising Committee as BP is the official oil, gas and sustainability partner for the Olympic Games.

They want to promote the application of three of the seven Olympic values - determination, respect and excellence - to business.