Business Immersion at St Felix
A two-week foundation in entrepreneurship for 14–16 year-olds. Form a team, build a venture, finish with a Dragons-Den-style pitch — at a beautiful coastal boarding school.
St Felix campus
Team project
Where the maker, the seller and the leader meet for the first time.
A two-week foundation entrepreneurship programme at St Felix on the Suffolk coast. Students form founding teams of four, take morning seminars on business fundamentals (idea, customer, model, money), spend afternoons building their venture, and finish with a pitch to a panel of founders — in a real-room, dragon’s den format.
The teaching is deliberately accessible: case studies your year-group will know, mentors who remember being teenagers, and a tone that welcomes the student who has never thought commercially before. By the end you will have made a small business decision under real-time constraint — and you will know whether you liked the feeling.
Why this programme matters
Teenagers rarely get a safe space to try out the role of entrepreneur. Schools focus on subject mastery; families often focus on grades. This fortnight gives 14–16 year-olds permission to try a different muscle: deciding under uncertainty, working in a team where roles aren’t clear yet, and making a small confident pitch to adults who matter. Many alumni go on to start a real venture in school; many do not, and report still that the leadership experience was the most useful fortnight of their teenage years.
Programme structure
- Day01
Arrival & team formation
Heathrow pick-up, coach to St Felix, welcome dinner. Founding teams formed over the first evening based on quick-fire interest matching.
- Day02–04
The fundamentals
Morning seminars: ideas, customers, value propositions, business models. Afternoon: team building and first concept sketches.
- Day05
Customer-discovery day
A day in Southwold and Lowestoft conducting real customer interviews under tutor supervision. The single most enlightening day for many students.
- Day06–07
Coastal weekend
A Saturday at the Suffolk coast (beach, harbour walk, fish-and-chips). Sunday: optional chapel, brunch, free reading.
- Day08–11
Build, model, refine
Daily 90-minute sprints on product, pricing, finance and marketing. Mentor reviews every other day.
- Day12
Pitch coaching day
A full day of pitch practice with a visiting communications coach. Deck construction, dress rehearsal, peer critique.
- Day13
Dragons’ Den pitch night
Each team presents a 7-minute pitch + 5-minute Q&A to a panel of three founders. Awards for best venture, best team and best pitch. Family livestream.
- Day14
Farewell & return
Goodbye breakfast, certificates, coach back to Heathrow with our chaperones.
Why this programme works.
A foundation entrepreneurship experience designed for the curious 14–16 year-old — not a watered-down version of an undergraduate course.
Real founders as mentors
Tutors are working entrepreneurs and operators — not summer-school staff reading from slides.
A founding team of four
You learn what it feels like to work where roles aren’t fixed, decisions are shared, and one person can’t do it all.
Real customer interviews
A guided day of real conversations with real strangers in Southwold — the most transformative day for most students.
Dragons’ Den pitch night
A live pitch in front of three founders in a real auditorium — nerve-shaking and unforgettable.
Pitch deck & reference
You leave with a presentable pitch deck and a signed reference from your mentor — useful for school applications.
A beautiful coastal setting
St Felix sits yards from the North Sea. The setting alone gives the fortnight a particular character.
What you take home.
Specific outputs and named skills that compound long after the trip ends.
- A complete pitch deck, 8–10 slides, mentor- and peer-reviewed.
- A customer-interview log from real conversations conducted in Southwold.
- A simple financial sketch — pricing, unit economics, a first-pass revenue idea.
- A recorded 7-minute pitch from Dragons’ Den night.
- A signed mentor reference — useful for senior-school applications.
- Working knowledge of value proposition, business model canvas and customer-discovery basics.
- Public-speaking confidence from pitch night and the daily habit of presenting in teams.
- Certificate of completion co-issued by St Felix and Aspirational Editech.
For the curious 14–16 year-old.
Especially suited to students who have shown a quiet entrepreneurial streak — the kid who runs a school stall, codes a side project or campaigns for a cause — and is ready to give the experience a structured try.
- Ages 14–16, in Year 9 / Class 9 or above.
- Conversational English — comfortable in group work and pitching.
- Curious about business or leadership — no prior experience needed.
- Considering business, economics or computer science later in school.
- Open to working in a team where roles emerge rather than being given.
Life on the programme
A look inside the campus, the classrooms and the moments in between.
Transparent, all-in pricing.
One fee covers seminars, mentor pairings, the customer-discovery day, the pitch night and every meal in between.
Programme fee
Covers every element of the programme — from arrival at Heathrow to your final farewell.
- Two weeks’ full board at St Felix
- All seminars by working founders and operators
- Mentor pairing for each founding team
- Customer-discovery day in Southwold and Lowestoft
- Pitch coaching day with visiting communications coach
- Dragons’ Den pitch night with founder panel
- Suffolk coast weekend excursion
- All meals on campus and out
- UK Standard Visitor visa support and submission
- Comprehensive student travel insurance
- our chaperones throughout, 24/7 parent support line
- Signed reference, certificate and recorded pitch posted home
Optional extras
Items we don’t bundle in — either because they vary or because families prefer to choose.
- International flights (add-on from BLR, BOM or DEL)
- Personal pocket money (£150–£200 recommended)
- Optional pre/post-trip London extension (+£950)
- Personal laptop (helpful but not required)
Easy payments
Three-instalment plan at no extra cost. Pay in INR or GBP.
Sibling discount
5% off the second sibling on the same trip. School group rates available.
Refundable deposit
A £500 deposit secures your seat; balance due eight weeks before departure.
What sets this programme apart.
Real founders, not slideshows
Tutors are working entrepreneurs — their case studies are their own companies.
A real customer-discovery day
No simulation. Real strangers, real conversations, in a real coastal town.
Pitch night with consequences
Awards, feedback, recording — a real performance that students remember for years.
Your journey, step by step.
From the first enquiry to the warm hug back at the airport — we walk every metre with you.
Enquire & speak
A 20-minute call with our team. We talk fit, dates, dietary needs and any concerns parents carry.
Apply & pay deposit
Short online form plus a £500 refundable deposit secures your place. Visa file begins.
Onboarding pack
Six weeks out: kit list, light pre-reading, parent WhatsApp group, named contacts in country.
Programme & pitch
Two weeks at St Felix. Daily updates, pitch night, signed reference and certificate posted home.
Looked after, every step of the way.
Academic guidance, pastoral care and emotional wellbeing aren’t separate departments — they’re woven through every day of the programme.
Academic
A senior mentor oversees each founding team. Mid-week and end-of-week one-to-ones available for every student.
Pastoral
our house parent on site at all times. Nightly check-ins. Pitch-week nerves are well-handled.
Emotional
First time presenting publicly is a big moment. Confidential sessions with our counsellor for any student who wants one.
Pathways this programme opens.
A short programme that quietly compounds — the conversations, the projects and the references open doors years later.
Business & economics
A named, credible early experience to draw on in school applications and conversations.
School-level leadership
Many alumni return and run a society, a magazine or a school venture — with new confidence.
A first venture
For students with the bug — a clear playbook for trying a real side project at school.
Long-arc career framing
A teenager who has presented to founders and survived is harder to intimidate at every later interview.
What students and parents tell us.
I did not know I had it in me to stand on a stage and pitch. Two weeks gave me a piece of myself I didn’t have before. I am running a school start-up society this year.
The customer-discovery day was extraordinary. He came back with stories about every person he interviewed in Southwold. That has stayed with him.
A different child returned. Quieter in the right ways, louder in the right ways. That alone is worth twice the fee.
Questions, answered.
A fortnight that grows up a teenager kindly.
Places are limited and tend to fill 6–8 weeks before departure. Speak to our team to walk through dates, paperwork and everything we handle on your behalf.
