Raising Aspirations: Ambition Primary Programme Ignites Pupils’ Dreams

On Thursday 23rd November, we proudly hosted the Ambition Programme Launch for all our primary academies. Five lucky students from each academy got the opportunity to take part in the programme and talk about their future.

The children got involved in a range of fun activities where they could talk about their biggest dreams for themselves. It was a fun, engaging and creative way to kick off the programme and got everyone excited for what’s to come.

The Ambition Primary Programme has been designed for students in Year 5, to help develop skills such as resilience, confidence and teamwork. We want to ‘Raise their Aspirations’ by introducing them to different job roles across many sectors, and to give them experiences of the world of work. We hope to challenge stereotypes and break down some of the barriers that young people face when thinking about future employment. Students will get to mix with other schools, have the opportunity to meet new people and form new friendships.

The children were given paper cut-outs of people where they were able to create themselves in the future. They could draw themselves in their dream uniform for their dream job and had to write on the back, what their dream job is and what they need to do to get to their dream job. The children had loads of fun talking about what they want to be when they grow up. They even got to take them home to show their fellow classmates and families. Something worth sticking on the fridge!

Students were asked to try and identify the definition of stereotypes. Some of the academies were able to give examples of stereotypes such as ‘girls like pink’ and ‘boys like blue’, and being judged based on what you look like or where you’re from.

Sarah Ward, Director of the Ambition Programme, spoke about working in engineering as a woman and how she wasn’t seen as knowledgeable in her role, despite her experience.

Everybody worked in teams and completed a stereotypes quiz where they had to match a picture of a person to their career based off the image alone.

This was a fun activity to end the morning and required the Year 5s to work together which prepared them for the team building activity of that afternoon.

They also talked about how to overcome stereotypes and the different jobs available to embrace differences and skillsets within a variety of industries.

After dinner, the children discussed what skills you need in the workplace. There were loads of ideas for different jobs as well as general skills for across the board. Pupils were discussing being respectful, making your voice heard, relevant skills, willingness to learn, teamwork, agility, time and planning your day, perseverance, self-discipline, being kind, helpful, communication and sticking to the rules.

The winning team for the challenge was from Crookesbroom Primary Academy. Well done!

Cocktails sticks, marshmallows, jelly sweets and dry spaghetti were put on their table as part of their final team-building task, where they had to build the best tower.

The pupils came up with some fantastic ideas and no two towers were the same. The aim of the game was to build the tallest tower with the fewest Points total. There were definitely some strong competitors… maybe even some future engineers and architects on our hands!

The outcomes of these sessions will be showcased in a display at the school, allowing others to gain insights into the experiences of the five selected students during the programme.

Overall, the Ambition Primary Launch was well received by teachers and pupils. We can’t wait to see what they get up to next!