7th Annual Economics Conference

On Wednesday November 23rd, Sir Terry Leahy, the former Chief Executive of Tesco, spoke at Saffron Walden County High School's 7th Annual Economics Conference, which was attended by the school’s 70 A Level Economics students.

He also met with SWCHS’ Year 13 A Level Business Studies students, pictured here, and they questioned him on his career running the 3rd largest retail business in the world.

The day long conference consisted of a range of activities and visiting speakers. For many of the students, the highlight was a world trading game which simulated the problems faced by LDCs in their trading relationships with the richer world. This was followed by a thought-provoking presentation by Toby Quantrill, Head of Public Policy at the Fair Trade Association. Other speakers at the conference included Dr Gianluigi Vernasca of Essex University, who spoke about the very topical issue of the euro crisis and Dr Graham Mallard of Marlborough College, who talked about recent developments in economics. There was also a competitive quiz and the school’s entry for the Bank of England’s Target 2.0 was given a dress rehearsal. The team went on to win the first round of the competition (see separate news article).

The day was best summed up by one of the participants ‘An awesome day that has enthused me to go on to study economics at university’