Bank of England Target Two Point Zero Competition 2008/09

This year, Watford Grammar School for Girls participated in the Target 2.0 competition. The team was made up of Heidi Richardson, Anoushka Gohil, Lucy Katz, Nikita Shah and Nicola Goodall from the Upper Sixth. Mr Nutter - Head of Economics - and Mrs Chopra - Head of Learning Enrichment - encouraged the pupils to take part in the competition.

Target 2.0 is a national competition set up by the Bank of England and The Times. The title refers to the two per cent inflation target that the government sets the Monetary Policy Committee of the Bank of England. It is their job to meet monthly, to look at the economic situation and decide whether, as part of monetary policy, they should change the basic rate of interest in order to meet the target for inflation.

All sounds a bit complicated?

The pupils’ task was to play the role of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) and make a presentation to a panel of judges explaining their decision whether to change the rate of interest. This involved extensive research about all the economic factors that the real MPC take into consideration before making their decision every month.

After the initial delight of being appointed to the Target 2.0 team, preparation for the competition began in September. Initially the pupil meetings revolved around research and reporting what they had read. Numerous exhausting after-school sessions were spent drafting the structure and cataloguing the contents of the presentation; at times morale dipped, and tensions ran high, but as the team gelled, these tribulations were conquered. The performance of the presentation to the entire Upper Sixth with Mr Nutter and Mrs Chopra in General Studies not only gave the team confidence, but also highlighted areas that they could improve.

The Regional Heat on Monday 17 November 2008 at Regents College London, with seven other schools arrived sooner than they had hoped. Nerves escalated as they watched City of London Girls, Merchant Taylors School, Putney High School, The American School, Hatch End High School, Claremont High and Preston Manor School. But everything went as planned and WGGS managed to finish the presentation within five seconds of the cut-off point, much to the amazement of the Bank of England judges!

Furthermore, the question and answer session particularly impressed the judges: Heidi’s effective analogy of the scales, used to explain the reasoning behind keeping the interest rate at 3%; Anoushka’s extensive knowledge of the financial markets; Nicola’s impressive awareness of the global economy; Lucy’s specialist knowledge concerning the Oil and Commodities Market; Nikita’s sound knowledge of the Foreign Exchange and Housing Markets - all seemed to be the composition for a winning formula!

The mood of the team on the journey home was completely different from that on the journey there – smiles all around! The victory meant that WGGS will be participating in the South East England area final in February 2009.

In short, it was a unique day, which taught the pupils a lot about Economics but also provided a lot of fun, and they really grew as people, economists and a team. They have all learnt a lot from participating in this competition: it has consolidated their knowledge of Economics, given them a range of new IT skills and helped them to brush up on public speaking. The time and effort put into preparing for the heats paid off. It is fair to say that they don’t just read Economics; they breathe Economics.