To think we need more kids like this child

[ReallyTired]

I admire Tommie Rose for his ambition and entrepreneurship spirt. He is the kind of person who makes jobs in the future.

www.itv.com/news/granada/2014-11-21/schoolboy-suspended-after-making-14k-selling-crisps/

Rather than punishing him I feel that his school should be chanelling his energy. Maybe they should enter into discussion what they would be happy for Tommie to sell to his class mates.

[Idontseeanysontarans]

There was a guy at my school who did that, he undercut the tuck shop by about 5p and made a fortune! (to us anyway)
I agree, his skills should be channelled into something that the school approves of, maybe fundraising? Punishing him is ridiculous.

[HighwayDragon]

14 grand on sweets? Thinking maybe it wasn't just sweets but fags and pot

[chicaguapa]

Actually, I thought the opposite.

I think it's good that he's being entrepreneurial but according to the story I read, he's already been kicked out of one school for doing it. Presumably business success doesn't just depend on exploiting a market to the exclusion of everything else?

It was a crap article though, written with emotive language to manipulate the reader into taking a particular stance.

[PureMorning]

It's breaking the rules. Why can this kid bring in sweets when others cant?

[Karasea]

I made a fortune doing this at school but no here near 14k and I had a few sidelines. He must have been doig fags and drugs too surely??!?

[WeirdCatLady]

I don't think I'd be very impressed. Surely we should be trying to get young people to eat healthily, not spending all their money on isotonic drinks and sweets. Also, if it is causing him to be suspended from school I don't think adults should be encouraging him.

[MrsPiggie]

Seriously, you admire him? He smuggled crisps into the school and sold them at a profit, taking advantage of the school's no junk policy. If he did that outside school with a forbidden product he would be convicted of smuggling and selling illegal products. And tax evasion, since I presume he hasn't set up a business and paid any taxes.

[ThinkIveBeenHacked]

Weird thats all well and good but all secondaries sell crisps, desserts, soft drinks etc. Pretty shitty of them to scold him for "contravining the healthy eating policy" when they are also selling junk food.

By my calculations (assuming a 50p profit per item sold, and accounting for the wages of his two friends), he was selling 70 items a day between the three of them (on average).

A secondary school will have at least 700 students, so only ten percent of people a day were buying from him. Hardly going tk create an obesity crisis, really.

Very good of him

[Moln]

14K!!!!!

I'd say the school is annoyed if he is depriving the tuck shop of that much in profit...

[WeirdCatLady]

According to the head teacher "“We have extremely high standards and with our healthy eating policy we don’t allow isotonic drinks, fizzy drinks and large amounts of sweets for the good of our children."
Surely that stance should be applauded and encouraged, not undermined? Plus, if that is the school's policy then that needs to be adhered to.

[Idontseeanysontarans]

Going off local schools the head teachers comment could read as 'we only allow the children to eat the non healthy food that we sell for profit in school and he's making more money than we do'

[Ohmygrood]

He should sell them on the way in/out of school instead.

[Ohmygrood]

'He smuggled crisps into the school '

since when did crisps become something children should be smuggling?
Attitudes like that do more harm than good. Children should be encouraged to eat treats like crisps in moderation.

[ghostyslovesheep]

he's paid his 2 mates £5:50 a DAY to help - no wonder he's made £14k - paying his workers such shit wages

seriously not sure he's much or a role model but I doubt he cares - he has money in his pocket

[ReallyTired]

Sweets and fizzy drinks are hardly on a par with cigarettes or drugs. My son's secondary allows children to go out at lunch time or buy chips in the school canteen. Healthy eating is a joke in the bulk of UK secondaries.

I don't think that running a business should be seen as entirely a bad thing. I am sure that he and his classmates have learnt a lot from the experience. I feel the school should have allowed him to continue with the proviso that stock needed to approved before being sold. I don't know if young enterprise schemes still exist in schools.

As far as tax goes, it's an area a child needs help with. I would be surprised if a child was punished for tax evasion.

[ThinkIveBeenHacked]

£5.50 a day to sell 23 items - all of which were probably sold during lunch hour. So £5.50 for about an hours work. Better than NMW for that age.

[littlesupersparks]

Our secondary school certainly doesn't allow crisps or sweets to be sold in the canteen!! Our healthy eating status is why cake sales are a good way of charity fundraising ;-)

Yes, very entrepreneurial, but if it's against the rules that's unfortunate. I'm sure he was warned before being 'kicked out' though.

[MrsPiggie]

Since when did crisps become something children should be smuggling? Attitudes like that do more harm than good. Children should be encouraged to eat treats like crisps in moderation.

Frankly, that's neither here nor there. The school decided they won't have them on the premises. It's their call, their decision. I may decide that taking heroine in moderation is good for me. The law will disagree. Is it OK for me to do whatever I want?

[Ohmygrood]

My ds's school don't allow crisps or sweets but they sell 'healthy' drinks which are full of sugar and additives as well as chips and cakes.

It's confusing to tell children that they can't have sweets/crisps because they are unhealthy but then to sell food which is also full of sugar and fat.

[Floggingmolly]

Fourteen grand? I think the crisps were a cover... That's a hell of a lot of cutprice crisps.

[Ohmygrood]

Eating crisps isn't against the law. Taking heroine is. What a silly comparison.

Schools make ridiculous rules about food. Banning foods don't help children to eat treats in moderation which is the healthiest way to eat.

[ReallyTired]

He is being punished more harshly than kids who swear at teachers or throw chairs across the room at many secondary schools or bullies. I realise the school don't like him selling junk food, but it's hardly the worst that happens in a secondary.

It would have been interesting to be a fly on the wall when such a child turns up at the pupil referral unit because he has been caught selling sweets.

[Viviennemary]

I'd be a bit at the £14K from crisps. I hope he was paying tax. The school was right to put a stop to this. And he shouldn't be allowed to use the school for commercial enterprise.

[MrsPiggie]

Sweets and fizzy drinks are hardly on a par with cigarettes or drugs.

Of course they are not. But students have to obey the rules of the school just as adults have to obey the rules of their workplace, country etc
Selling sweets in a school that forbids it is wrong. It's not going to turn that boy into an entrepreneur, it's more likely to turn him into a sort of Del Boy.

[Ohmygrood]

'He shouldn't be allowed to use the school for commercial enterprise'

Because no organisations are making any money at all from schools in the UK.