The impact of extending the economic well being curriculum to younger pupils'

1. The impact of extending the economic well being curriculum to younger pupils' Nicki Moore –CEG Manager, Connexions Derbyshire and Chair of the ICG Careers Education Committee Tracy Horton – Personal Development Coordinator at Shirebrook School

2. Aims • To provide information regarding a primary CEG project in North East Derbyshire • To consider the impact of the project using initial research findings

3. Objectives By the end of the session the participants will be able to: • Explain the purpose of the primary CEG project • List 5 key outcomes of the initial research • Describe three implications for the local primary and secondary schools within the local community.

4. Shirebrook - Background • Area of high deprivation • 22% of students eligible for free school meals • Students attainment on entry is well below national average • Progression to HE only 11% compared to national average of over 30%

5. Shirebrook - background • GCSE results improved significantly in 2006 • Focus for projects and funding e.g. Aim Higher, Healthy Schools initiatives • Improving progression rates to Further and Higher Education

6. Primary schools aspirations and transition project • A careers event for year 6 pupils - Ready Steady Go! • Training for the primary teachers, • A review of the Y6/Y7 transition curriculum

7. Ready Steady Go! • Used the new local college campus • Involved local providers • Was a multi-agency project • Engaged with parents • Provided practical engaging activities for 180 children

8. Ready Steady Go - aims • To encourage older primary pupils from the Shirebrook area to develop an understanding of the world of work. • To improve pupils self esteem and to help them raise their aspirations • To increase the number of students who access further and higher education

9. Ready Steady Go! - Objectives • Compare three interesting features of two vocationally related activities • Describe the potential for employment in the local community in two vocational areas. • Explain importance of applying themselves to their studies in Key Stage 3.

13. Research • To be conducted each year over a 5 year period • To measure the impact of the project • Mainly concentrated around the first aim (the others will use different methods of evaluation e.g. NEET figures)

14. Process • Researchers designed an initial questionnaire using the aims and objectives of the project • The questionnaire was trialed • Questionnaire was amended using the results of the trial

15. Profile of the interviewees Interviews in early 2007 as follows; • 30 Year 7 students • 12 Year 11 students • 12 Year 9 students Students were of mixed ability and gender and selected randomly from the school register

16. Key Findings

17. Vocabulary Key to helping young people interpret the world of work • Some words were very poorly defined • Implications for students in Y6,and beyond

18. Career (29.6%) Qualification (8.5%) Industry (6.6%) Work (11%) Pension (14.4%) College (14.5%) Wage (22.2%) Training (23%) Skill (17.8%) University (13.3%) Apprenticeship (.37%) Unemployment (14%) What words did we ask the students to define?

19. Knowledge of vocational areas • was very good • The understanding of what a skill is was good • The method might have influenced the answers for example if we had asked what three skills were needed to be a nurse the answers might not have been so good. • This provides us with a base line to measure for the future

20. Nurse 72 Teacher 79 Sailor 71 Politician 58 Hairdresser 71 Fire Officer 66 Bricklayer 67 Accountant 60 What did we find out about students vocational awareness?(maximum score is 81)

21. What do the people you know do? • All participants were able to list jobs, but the majority were all low skilled • When asked what is available locally the answers nearly always indicated low skilled jobs • There are many professional and skilled jobs in Shirebrook but these are not always obvious

22. What jobs are not available in your town or village? • Students struggled to answer this question • This will provide an indicator over the coming years

23. What do people consider when they are choosing jobs? • This was very encouraging • Students were linking self to opportunity • The scores should increase as the students move through the school

24. Students were asked to indicate their feelings about a range of statements • The majority of students felt that they could do any job (as opposed to jobs for girls/boys) • Most are willing to study • Travelling away from home is not a specific issue

25. Students were asked to indicate their feelings about a range of statements • Most 11 year olds professed to have a plan for the future • The majority claimed that what they did was important to them • Most felt that they had plenty to offer and that there was plenty they could do.

26. Attitudes • Considering the community is labelled as one with low self-esteem the responses were optimistic • In reality this is not put into practice • This will be monitored using indicators of social deprivation and NEET figures over the next few years

27. Future of the research • This is a 5 year programme • It would be nice to compare this with a middle class area but this would require a similar activity and the resourcing to undertake the research • The research will be an excellent evaluation of the CEG programme in Shirebrook school

28. Personal Development programme • Y7 Make it Real • Y8 Real Game • Y9 Careers Day Industry Day • Y10 Work Experience Job search skills • Y11 Post-16 options

31. Information and Guidance • Connexions resource centre • IT resources • Connexions Advisers