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Creating an environment in which young people can explore entrepreneurial thinking and creativity is high on Learn by Design’s priority. Managing projects such as Our Future Derby has produced an added platform for Derby Primary schools to utilise the opportunity to raise the aspirations of their pupils.
Dates: 18th & 19th July School taking part: Cherry Tree Hill Primary School Derby Task: Career exploration whilst creating a working school Farm Shop and Chicken coop Aim: For year 6 pupils to leave a future enterprise legacy Number of pupils taking part: 70 pupils (aged 10/11) Sponsor: OurFutureDerby
Assembly started the day:
The day’s activities were kicked off with a “What’s my Line?” Assembly. Compered by Lauren Croll – Learn by Design’s Project Manager, Employer Volunteers were seated at the front and introduced to the pupils by a corresponding number. With Lauren’s guidance, the children then tried to guess each of the volunteer’s’ careers. A prop was introduced to enhance the guessing process with an end finale where each volunteer introduced themselves and explained the career/job role they worked in.
Employee Volunteers included:
David Phillips – Chartered Engineer and professional manager working in the railway sector
Charlotte Wale – Graphics Design and Marketing for Learn by Design
Charlotte Gray – Learning and Development Manager at RDS Global (IT Company)
Olivia Slack – NFU Farmer and Butcher
Simon Ferrigno - Working for the Co-op managing charity contracts
Keith Rogers - Adventure playground Manager for sycamoreadventure.co.uk
Hitting Gatsby Benchmarks in schools
The eight Gatsby benchmarks of Good Career Guidance
1. A stable careers programme 2. Learning from career and labour market information 3. Addressing the needs of each pupil 4. Linking curriculum learning to careers 5. Encounters with employers and employees 6. Experiences of workplaces 7. Encounters with further and higher education 8. Personal guidance
First Day – Design and Develop
Cherry Tree Hill Primary School pupils were split into 3 groups and had a day packed full of rotational activities including:
Careers session: - Supported by RDS Global, the pupils were introduced to “Sphero Sprk Balls” and the latest Kano build your own computers software. Highlighting IT skills and technology and encouraging pupils to use the hands-on elements, sparking industry career inspiration.
Stone painting: This creative session encouraged pupils to design their own images that would be painted on stones and placed in the school pond area.
Chicken Coop Design: David Phillips supported pupils in drawing out chicken coop design plans. Using creative and engineering principals that encouraged pupils to think about safety, animal welfare, maximising productivity and thinking about how many chickens they could house practically. Mathematical tasks included, geometry, scale and dimensions.
Poster branding: This session included thinking about safety messages, guidance messages, information points and encouraging pupils to think about how the next generation of pupils that carry on the legacy of the school farm shop. The importance of animal care, plant and wildlife care to the growth of the enterprise. Farm enterprise session: This session explored farming technology, running a farm shop, selling and packaging products in an environmentally friendly way – no plastic!
Day 2 – Action Day!
Despite the torrential rain the pupils of Cherry Tree Hill Primary put all their gusto into implementing their ideas into the school grounds. Clearing waste shrubbery, leaves and digging out planters was one area in which pupils helped nurture their school grounds. The chicken coop proved a huge success, as David and the team supported pupils to build from scratch an extended coop. Skills such as reading instructions and working together as a team were highlighted and by the end of the day a fully structure had been engineered using wood donated by the IET East Midlands company, previously used at The Inspiration Mars Rover programme.
“It was a joy to work with such enthusiastic children, teachers and volunteers at Cherry Tree Hill Primary. The combination of having career volunteers from a broad range of roles and industries along with a wide range of STEM, agriculture & design activities enabled us to highlight a really diverse range of jobs and skills to the Year 6’s at the same time as having lots of fun!”
Lauren Croll - Learn by Design Programme Manager
The whole day was a successful accumulation of digging, building, clearing and planting. Pupils taking pride in their environment and creating an embedded legacy to encourage pupils to come back next year and help maintain a working farm shop. #OurFutureDerby
Take a look at the images from the project here: