How we Support Early Career Aspiration at Eppleton 

We know that even at the young age of three or four, children are already starting to form their first aspirations. By six they are starting to have opinions on what they think they can or can’t do in the future. And by the time they’re 10, young people start to make decisions which could go on to limit their future options.  

We believe that the inclusion of a careers education is essential in ensuring that the children of Eppleton Academy grow up with ambition and are able to have full and successful lives.  Therefore a driver of our curriculum is essentially that we support our children in ‘learning for life’.  

 

 

 

DfE Career Strategy 2017

We want every person, no matter what their background is and no matter where they are from, to be able to build a rewarding career. In a fast- changing economy, it is essential that we make school and work more closely connected than ever before so young people from all backgrounds have the knowledge, skills and experience to succeed.

 

 

A child cannot want to be an engineer if they do not know what an engineer is, therefore the children are taught about a variety of careers throughout their time in school and understand how their learning links to the world of work.  

 It is not about children choosing their future jobs at this very young age. It is about helping our children to have ambitions and aspirations for themselves, to help to open their eyes to the range of possibilities their futures hold.  Helping them to learn about the variety of jobs open to them and the fantastic range of opportunities we have in the region, and to gain a broad understanding of the routes to get into work, including the essential skills and attitudes required to be successful in the workplace.

 

 

To support our school in this huge undertaking we have enlisted the support of The North East Local Enterprise Partnership (NELEP) and have embarked on a pilot North East Ambition Careers Benchmark: Primary Pilot. We share the North East Ambition that each and every young person in the North East is able to identify routes to a successful working life, has the opportunity from an early age to have experiences and exposure to the world of work and meet people along the way who can inspire and motivate them. We want our children to understand, alongside formal academic skills, the value of life and work experience. For further information click the link below:

North East Ambition

We will do this through addressing the Gatsby Benchmarks

These are the benchmarks which we are working towards and strive to deliver as part of our careers curriculum. The eight benchmarks are a framework for good careers guidance developed nationally to support schools in providing pupils with the best possible career education, information, advice and guidance.

Gatsby Benchmark

Here are some of the amazing experiences our children have taken part in recently:

Lego League – after school club

First Lego League introduces science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) through a fun, exciting hands-on learning project. Our team of pupils gained real-world problem solving experiences through a global robotics program where they learned to design, code and create solutions made with LEGO bricks. This culminated in the involvement in a friendly competition where they could show off their skills.

Cookery Club – Ministry of food Foundation of Light

Families were invited to join our 'Jamie's Kitchen' Cookery Club. They attended the weekly club after school and learned more about how to be a good chef, cooking up some delicious healthy recipes to take home and enjoy with their families.

Employer visit - Tombola

A group of children were lucky enough to visit an international local company Tombola. They received a tour of the inspiring work place, learned more about the different departments within the company from game designers, marketing, human resources, catering to meeting the managing director. They had careers talks from employees from different departments and learned more about their job roles and routes into work.

Sunderland University Visit

Pupils visited Sunderland University complete with a full campus tour and a mini medics workshop. It was an opportunity to find out more about university life and all that it has to offer, as well as learning about which jobs require a degree.

Employer visit – artists studio – Ray Lonsdale

Through their local history topic, year 6 pupils learn about the mining history of Eppleton. The local Hetton born artist and sculptor Ray Lonsdale has created the local mining sculpture close by to school and mining related artwork, including Ray's work, has been a focus for their art curriculum. They were lucky enough to visit his studio to learn more about how he creates his amazing sculptures and to learn more about his career path including what it means to be self employed.

Employer visit - Esh Engineering

Esh a giant construction company, visited our early years and Y1 pupils. Children learned about some of the different job roles such as builder, quantity surveyor, foreman and architect through practical role play.

George Fouche – inspirational sportsman – guest speaker

George Fouche an international rugby sportsman visited and spoke to the whole school with his 'Dare to Aspire Roadshow'. We learned all about his motivational story and workshops were completed with children where team and individual challenges developed important life skills of resilience and communication.

Newcastle University Visit – science workshops

Children across KS2 took part in a University Primary STEM day, where through interactive science demonstrations they learned more about science topics, whilst also gaining a valuable insight into University and the life of students.

Foodbank – paid and voluntary roles

A part of our Harvest Festival, donations were collected and delivered to Sunderland food bank. We met some of the staff and volunteers and learned more about their roles and the work involved in getting donations to families in need.

Career conversations

All of our children from nursery to year 6 are involved in regular careers conversations, where we discuss with children their future career ambitions. Through their career related experiences, which they experience during their time at primary school, their eyes are opened to the multitude of different options which are open to them. We have children in year 6 telling us that they are considering a much wider range of options from physiotherapists to marine biologists, interpreters to architects.

National Careers Week

As part of National Careers week we had lots of inspirational professionals visit us in school to talk to our pupils about their careers. Each year group from Nursery to Year 6 had visitors from outside agencies but also from members of our school staff to discuss their job role. It was very interesting learning about different careers from different sectors.

Publication of our long-term careers plan coming soon!!!!


Follow the links below to find out more about different careers.

Click the link to learn about careers in the NHS.

NHS Careers

Click the link to virtually meet people talking about a whole host of careers.

BBC Bitesize Careers

Click the link to find out what a job involves and if it is right for you.

National Careers Service

Click the link to take a closer look at selected subjects and issues, with a selection of videos, guides and advice.

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