An Ethical Education

Sixth Formers enjoyed an insightful seminar conducted by Gill Ringland and Jim Bignal, founding partners of Ethical Reading on Wednesday 30^th January to explore ethics in business, with the workshop focused on the concept of fairness.

Ethical Reading is a not-for-profit social enterprise that aims to make more businesses in Reading a better place to work by working with organisations to ensure they embed ethics into decision-making processes. This involves looking at the way top level decisions are made; the way employees treat each other and how they deal with people day to day.

Sixth Form Economics students worked in groups debating what would be considered fair in a case study, how they would act upon it and why they would choose that method of handling the situation.

“In Business Economics students look at business objectives and they always tend to consider the financial elements but they also have to explore corporate social responsibility too; learning that there is more to business that just profit and that it has everything to do with people and the planet too. This seminar is good for students to learn about that balance, about the circular economy and breaking away from being a throwaway society.” explained Beverley Eldridge, Economics teacher.

“It’s great getting students discussing ethical issues such as fairness because irrelevant of where it comes in the curriculum it is a responsibility of all businesses, particularly in a world where corporate social responsibility is becoming more pertinent in society.” added Matt Dawes, Head of Economics.

The seminar was the first event organised by Karen Gracie-Langrick, Deputy Head (Academic) towards the development of a formalised education programme in ethical enterprise and entrepreneurship.

“Ethical enterprise draws together strands from our own Quaker values, ethical trading and the vital concept of sustainability with its three pillars of planet, people and profit.” clarified Karen.

Quakers are well known for their ethical and fair approach to business, playing a central role in establishing several of Britain’s best know companies, including Barclays Bank, Cadbury Chocolate, Rowntree and Clarks as well as many prominent organisations committed to ethical issues, such as Amnesty International, Oxfam and Greenpeace.

“The seminar from Ethical Reading has opened my eyes to what ethical problems there are in business and how important they are to consider. A lot of the values raised in today’s seminar such as respect and equality also align with values we as students at Leighton Park hold highly. It’s interesting to learn how the school can help us when it comes to being in a business environment.” summarised Jasmine.

“The seminar was an interesting and unique experience to what we would normally discuss in Economics and I would love to take part in something similar again. It has made me consider aspects of fairness rather than simply focusing on profit and efficiency in business.” enthused Joe.

“The seminar has been a helpful with learning how managers have to make tough decisions and the best way to make things fair; you have to be ruthless in business sometimes but this seminar has also highlighted the importance and need for being fair too.” commented Shaun.

“The discussion enabled us to observe everyone’s point of view and the best method for trying to be fair when it comes to business scenarios. What was clear from the talk with Gill is to not make assumptions about people and what is going on and to involve them in decisions.” added Ella.

“The interesting thing about today’s seminar was the discussion; even though the students came up with different answers they had a lot in common with their thought processes. They were all concerned about transparency and fairness. I think they got a lot out of today’s discussion.” concluded Gill.