Young Enterprise – Companion – Orchard Mead Academy

About Companion

We are a team of students working as part of the Young Enterprise Company Programme. This has involved us creating a fully functioning business in Year 10 as part of a competition. As a team we decided to create a product that could help students excel in their school lives from the very beginning. This led us to develop the Easy Reader.

What is the Easy Reader?

The Easy Reader is a 100% recyclable reading ruler with an adjustable cover that allows only a section of what is being read to be viewed at once. With 1 in 10 people in the UK suffering from some form of dyslexia we felt that something was needed to help them overcome their disadvantage. The Easy Reader allows anyone to enhance their concentration when reading, which is well known to help improve reading abilities. We are also able to add coloured visors to the product to be much friendlier to anyone with a visual impairment.

How does the Easy Reader help?

The Easy has many benefits, not only is it effective in enhancing concentration and improving reading abilities, it makes it effortless to do so. The Easy Reader has been proven to improve the reading age of students as by aiding their concentration, it allowed them to completely understand what they’re reading. We have carried out testing with our SEN department to show how effective the Easy Reader is and we have received incredibly positive feedback from numerous different people and organisations.

Our achievements to date?

Companion has sold over 500 units of the Easy Reader to date and we plan on selling many more over the next few months. As a team we attended a Beaumont Leys trade fair event and we were awarded the most customer focused trade stand.

We have presented the Easy Reader to local Primary School Head Teachers who have all expressed an interest in the Easy Reader and are currently trialling it in their schools.

Our presentation and product has already won 4 awards in the Young Enterprise Company programme, Best Customer Focused Trade Stand (at Beaumont Leys), Innovation Award for best product, Best Customer Service at the local area finals. At the County Finals we successfully progressed through to the Regional Finals to be held on 4th June 2019 and won awards for Best Marketing, Financial Management and were voted Company of the Year for Leicestershire.

We have been featured in the Leicester Mercury and have appeared on BBC Radio Leicester. BBC East Midlands News have been into our school after they heard of the Easy Reader to film us and talk about what we have done and our design and marketing of the Easy Reader.

Clip from “BBC East Midlands Today”

How can you help?

Spread the word about the Easy Reader – tell your friends, share our links, buy the Easy Reader and join us on our journey to help anyone who finds reading harder than they should.