North East Ambition at Thomas Bewick Primary
Together with North East Ambition we are working towards raising this career aspirations and inspiration of children at Thomas Bewick. We chose North East Ambition to ensure a seamless transition of career education through to secondary school.
What is North East Ambition?
Inspired by research conducted through international visits, analysis of good practice in English schools and a comprehensive review of current literature, the benchmarks cover different dimensions of good careers guidance, including hands-on experience in workplaces and encounters with further and higher education as well as a sound understanding of the current labour market.
In achieving these benchmarks, every young person should be able to identify routes to a successful working life, make more informed decisions about their future and be better prepared for the workplace so they can play a more fundamental role in the region’s economic regeneration.
Inspiring ambitions from an early age
Research conducted by North East Ambition highlighted the need for a careers programme at a much earlier stage in a child’s education after it was revealed that:
- Children have their first aspirations aged 3 to 4 years
- By age 5 and 6 years children they are beginning to think about what they can and cannot do because of their gender.
- A UCAS Survey found that being certain about entering higher education by the time a child leaves primary school (or earlier) means a child is over twice as likely to end up at a more competitive university than someone who decided in their late teens.
- Young people start making career limiting decisions by age 10, which they solidify by age 14.
Thomas Bewick Primary is currently in the second year of the project and is well on the way to developing a stable careers programme for children from Nursery to Year 6. Our careers team, supported by NELEP, is also working with Duke’s Secondary School to develop a careers transition programme to take pupils from Year 6 to Year 7.
Tracking success
Throughout their time at Thomas Bewick, we track children’s aspirations from Nursery to Year 6. We highlight careers through our career’s week, through celebration and awareness days and our enquiry curriculum including educational visits to Universities and businesses.