Pupils build on career knowledge by creating ‘Space Hotel’
The Aspire Learning Partnership of 8 primary schools in Redcar and Cleveland has launched its Aspire 2 Achieve programme for Key Stage 2 this week. Research shows that to be effective, careers education needs to begin much sooner than traditionally, ideally at about the age of eight. Aspire 2 Achieve aims to meet this need by providing children with the opportunity to access a range of exciting activities to broaden their employability skills, and their understanding of the World of Work and further and higher education.
The Partnership is working with partner organisations to deliver these activities, and the programme got underway this week with 2 events. On Monday, a group of 36 children from across the schools attended the launch day of The Brilliant Club Scholars’ Programme at Durham University. This programme aims to widen access to highly selective universities for children from under represented groups. The children will be working with a PhD student from the university on a challenging programme of study over the next 5 weeks, and have to submit a 1000 word assignment at the end of the programme. The programme will culminate with a Graduation ceremony for the children and their parents at Durham University in the New Year.
On Tuesday, Year 4 children took part in a Scrapheap Challenge day. Teams of children travelled to Inspire 2 Learn, where they were presented with the challenge to create a Space Hotel from scrap donated by Percy’s Scrap Store in Middlesbrough. The teams were supported by volunteers from Durham and Teesside Universities and other from business and industry. The “designers” and “engineers” at the centre communicated by a live link with other teams back in school, carrying out other roles, such as marketing and advertising. The Challenge mimicked the conditions of a real business project, to develop important workplace skills such as leadership, teamwork, problem solving and creative thinking amongst the children.
Other activities are planned throughout the year, and will be publicised on their website www.aspirelearningpartnership.co.uk and social media pages. For more information about the Brilliant Club visit their website at www.thebrilliantclub.org and for more information on the Scrapheap Challenge event visit the Inspire 2 Learn blog at http://inspire2learnblog.com/aspire-scrapheap-challenge-day.
The idea for Aspire 2 Achieve grew out of the SCHOOLS NorthEast FutureReady conference in 2015, an event that focuses on the knowledge and experiences, along with the key attributes and attitudes, a young person needs to succeed in the 21st century. Preparations for FutureReady 2016 are now underway – save the date Thursday 4 February 2016. For more information and to reserve your place, please visit our website.