Pictured above are the four Year 11 students who took part in the Stock Market Challenge, along with Principal Mr Oliver Mooney and Maths teacher Miss Catriona Doran.

On Friday 1st March, four 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, continuous news articles blaring from the speakers, adrenalin and anticipation as the price of the shares rose and fell.

As the day went on, more and more of the £21,000 (paper money!) the pupils started with began to get locked away on shares.  They were glued to the screens predicting what was going to happen to the price of the shares.  There were huge debates within the team about whether to take the risk or play the game safely.

At the end of the day 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 £24,000 profit and just missed 3rd place by £100.

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!

Pictured above are the students at the Stock Market Challenge. (L-R) Joseph Mee, Sean Cully, Shauna Hughes and Linda McKeown.