Having worked in schools for more than 25 years, currently as headteacher of an average sized primary school in Somerset, I have always been struck with the need to add “value” to the purpose of education.
It is clear in my mind that teaching the primary national curriculum in isolation, devoid of any real-life context, will not prepare our young people for their futures.
Children need to see relevance to what they are learning so that they can make connections, recognise their own strengths and interests, and in so doing help to support and develop their future selves.
Career-related learning is embedded within my school and having seen the positive impact that it has on young lives – for very little effort – I want to share what I do so other headteachers and senior leaders can embrace it too.
I know how stressful and relentless the world of school leadership is and recognise that all too often there isn’t time to stop and think, let alone bring in a new initiative. However, if you don’t already know about it, I would recommend, without hesitation, Primary Futures. For zero cost and very little effort, Primary Futures connects the world of work with primary schools through a vast database of volunteer visitors to superb online learning materials and YouTube content.
Launched in 2014, Primary Futures was the result of a pilot project between the National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT) and the charity Education and Employers which looked at the impact that volunteers/role models from the world of work could have on children’s motivation and attainment.
Nine years’ work in developing and refining the programme by Education and Employers has ensured that it makes a positive difference to children’s lives, developing and promoting the importance of careers and jobs for our youngest people. The reason I am such a huge advocate is that it is a headteacher-led service.
So how has it worked for my school and what else do I do when it comes to career-related learning?
Career pathways: The Primary Futures programme helps schools to coordinate and deliver careers events (images: Primary Futures)
Primary Futures at Welton Primary School
We approach career-related learning in two ways. There is the direct (planned themed days and events made possible with Primary Futures) and the indirect (the more subtle, drip-drip approach).
Children do not lack aspiration but rather, in many cases, they lack experiences and opportunities. Their personal goals are often limited as they are based solely on what and who they have experienced in their lives to date. We know that children “cannot be what they cannot see” which is why I view career-related learning as crucial in opening minds and bringing new opportunities to their young lives.
Planned days and events are a high-profile opportunity to celebrate the world of work with a range of visitors and activities to promote careers and bring to life the huge variety of jobs people have.
Primary Futures helps us to coordinate and deliver these events with relatively little planning – simply register, set a date for the event, and then get access to thousands of volunteers, ready and waiting to visit my school.
For us, these events have greater impact when they are themed, so over the years we have focused on careers involving STEM subjects, outdoor careers, local careers, careers within the creative industry, and many more.
Visitors have been hugely engaging and the children have thoroughly enjoyed meeting them and talking about the work they do, as well as taking part in exciting activities.
The impact of these events is always positive. We survey our children both before and after and the results often show that, in many cases, children have experienced a job that they didn’t know existed – who knew that being an explorer was a career!
Another feature of the Primary Futures portal is the ability to access pre-recorded and live online career events which focus on different career-related themes. These currently include topics such as “Top secret jobs – working at GCHQ”, “Budding futures: Tackling gender stereotypes” and “STEM jobs in everyday life”.
All of these are available for free and at my school we make use of them in both whole school assemblies and classroom lessons, often resulting in interesting discussions with our children.
A byproduct of all these opportunities to meet new people from the world of work, both in person and virtually, is that it has opened my children’s eyes to their own interests and skills. This in turn has motivated them to take a greater interest in their learning in school.
Teachers have also recognised these new interests and used these to further support and motivate our learners in lessons, some of whom had been at risk of disengagement.
Secondary colleagues have commented that they too have noticed a positive impact in the aptitude and attitude of children from my school when they arrive in year 7.
Tam
One particular positive case was that of a young Slovakian girl called Tam. A quiet year 4 girl, eligible for Pupil Premium, she achieved fairly well at school but did not seem to have any particular interests or goals. Language was an additional challenge as she had arrived in the country a few years earlier.
She was a typical example of a pupil who could “coast” through school with few opportunities to really shine. This all changed however following a STEM-related career day. Tam met professionals including a nuclear submariner, a wind farm engineer, and an air traffic control programmer. She was so motivated that when she got home, she asked her parents to buy her an engineering kit – a working model of a pneumatic robot arm – which she then proceeded to make while also filming her progress using time lapse photography.
The highlight for me, and a moment of pure joy, was when she came into school with the finished model and a home-made film which she presented to the whole school. A real “wow” moment for us all.
It also became clear from that point that Tam was a keen engineer. We were then able to develop this interest through her science curriculum learning. Tam has since been interviewed by Primary Futures (see further information to read this).
Indirect approaches
Our indirect approaches to career-related learning are those which happen throughout day-to-day teaching. The key to success is to ensure all staff in the school are engaged. Quite simply, there is an expectation that within day-to-day curriculum teaching, adults make reference to related jobs and ask who might use this learning in their lives.
These opportunities are often very subtle, however the real value is that learning has a context. In this way, over the course of their primary learning, children are experiencing a large number of career opportunities which, in turn, very often result in new interests being developed.
We have begun to engage our parent community in conversations around careers, too. This has been due to our Primary Futures themed days/activities which have stimulated conversations at home. As such, we have started to see parents offer to come to school to talk about their jobs which is a fantastic step.
Conversations have also been promoted at home through our Character and Citizenship Award which I developed for use across the primary schools in my local academy trust. In essence the award supports families to engage and interact with their children by providing a number of activities to complete to achieve an award (bronze, silver, gold).
Within its design I have included specific career-related activities to help promote these conversations outside of school. So within the different categories (e.g. Developing Me, Local Me etc) there are specific references to the world of work, e.g. find out about a local job, learn about a global charity, interview a sports person. The impact of this has been fantastic as children take pride in talking about what they have achieved. Each year we provide the children with new activities.
Final thoughts
There is always more that can be done and I am currently working on providing pupils with a greater understanding of salaries and finance while also inviting ex-pupils into school to talk about their learning journeys. I was delighted to be asked to give evidence as a witness to the Education Select Committee earlier this year as part of their inquiry into career education, information advice and guidance. I was able to demonstrate to the committee the powerful impact of the work in my school and how important it is to start career conversations early. Feedback during the session was overwhelmingly positive and the final report was published in June (see further information).
Elsewhere, I was particularly delighted when Ofsted reported on our school. In their report, the inspectors noted: “All pupils spoken to during the inspection were able to articulate their aspirations for their own futures.”
John Snell is headteacher at Welton Primary School in Somerset and is also an educational consultant. Visit www.connected-consultancy.com
Headteacher Update Autumn Term Edition 2023
- This article first appeared in Headteacher Update's Autumn Term Edition 2023. This edition was sent free of charge to every primary school in the country in September. A digital edition is also available via www.headteacher-update.com/content/downloads
Further information & resources
- For more information about Primary Futures, visit www.inspiringthefuture.org/primary-futures and to read the full Primary Futures interview with Tam, visit https://tinyurl.com/55mhztem
- To download the House of Commons Education Select Committee report, entitled Careers education, information, advice and guidance (2023), go to https://tinyurl.com/53teer4v