Pictured above are Year 11 students, Nathan McCaffery, Niall Campbell, Padraig Boyce and Ciara Jones who took part in the Stock Market Challenge, along with Principal Mr Jarlath Burns. Missing from photo is Alannah O’Grady.

On Friday 6th March, five Year 11 pupils travelled to Abbey Christian Brothers’ Grammar School to compete alongside over 20 other schools in the Stock Market Challenge.

It was a very fast paced day giving the pupils a taste of the real world of finance and a feel of how hectic a trading floor is.  There was a lot of shouting over the pumping music, spontaneous news articles roaring from the speakers over the hub of adrenalin and anticipation. The price of the shares rose and fell repeatedly and unexpectedly.

From the opening of Monday’s trading, there was a clear divide in our team, Niall was adamant to play safe, while Alannah argued that taking a risk was the only way to success. With a much needed team talk, however, the team gelled and worked fantastically! Each person had their specific role, Nathan as Finance manager keeping a tight eye on the portfolio and Padraig as Media Analyst reading the daily news articles meticulously. As the trading week progressed, more and more of the £21,000 (paper money!) the pupils started with began to get locked away on shares.

At the end of Friday’s trading, values of portfolios were totalled up to see who made the most capital gain from their portfolio of shares and we waited on the winner with anticipation.  St Pauls Year 11 students had made a whopping £15,000 profit.

A brilliant day was had by all.  The pupils developed core skills of communication, team-work, decision making, self-confidence and most importantly they learned the importance of mathematics and how it opens the door to so many different career paths, particularly in the world of business!

See below for a few pictures from the event.