Our School/College Newsletter SKILLS for LIFE
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Our programmes help you meet The Gatsby Benchmarks. The stamps throughout our newsletter show you which benchmark each initiative addresses. Summer 2019 www.educationbusinesspartnership.co.uk Welcome to our school/college newsletter Through our newsletter we aim to keep you updated on our latest developments and offerings. We hope you find the content of interest. We are Education Business SKILLS Partnership (EBP) and we have been designing and delivering FOR LIFE engaging ways for businesses Our Developing Life Skills and young people to come programme has been designed together for over 25 years. to support the development of young people, by increasing their Cultivate the final… confidence, encouraging positive Eight finalists, from local thinking and helping to raise secondary schools Reading their aspirations. Girls, Kennet School, Thatcham and St Bartholomew’s The following schools took up The team received £500 to this opportunity (Little Heath, Newbury were invited to Bayer help towards growing their Reading, John O’Gaunt, Hungerford, in Reading, for the Cultivate business. Runners up receiving The Downs, Compton, The Willink, 2019 grand final. £250 were ‘Sarija Wear’, a Reading, Kennet, Thatcham and Modesty fashion team made Castle School, Newbury) and Cultivate, now in its 9th year, is equipped their students with up of Sarah and Khaija from our hugely successful initiative vital additional skills to go out designed to encourage curious, Reading Girls School and into the workplace, including; self-motivated young people, Mateja also from Reading Girls aged 12-19, to take initial School with ‘Let it Blossom’ an Team Work Voice Impact business ideas and turn them environmentally friendly and biodegradable bag company. Positive Thinking into a reality with the support Presenting for Impact of a business mentor. The Melanie Watt, EBP Project finalists presented to a panel Officer, said The Developing Life Skills of three business professionals workshops were a resounding who then had the tough task of “We are ever so thankful success for all schools involved. picking a winner! to Bayer for sponsoring All schools registered their ‘Dimension 3DP’, made up of the programme. The interest to host the event again three Year 7’s from St students all did with another group of students, Bartholomew’s were crowned exceptionally well and so we hope to do this next year, Cultivate 2019 winners with and will do everything we can to should be really proud of secure sufficient funding. their 3D printing business idea. themselves.” Primary School Splash! Our primary school workshops give young people an early introduction into the world of work with insightful experiences and activities to inspire and motivate them on areas such as, STEM subjects and the importance of money management. Primary Science Challenge Financial Pupils from eight local primary schools demonstrated their Science skills at our Awareness… Primary School Science Challenge Final, a In partnership with Sovereign project designed to get young people Housing Association, we have interested in and motivated by the recently run Financial Awareness exciting world of science. workshops with 119 Year 6 students from Thatcham Park Prior to the final, AWE who sponsor the programme, visited eight West School and Caldecott and Berkshire primary schools, where their graduate Scientists worked with Thameside in Abingdon. pupils to demonstrate science in action. They ran a variety of science experiments including: creating rainbows in jars, paper helicopters, water Having successfully run Financial candles and looking at light refraction. Pupils were then invited to Awareness workshops for develop their own experiments to show a scientific idea or solve a secondary school students, for scientific problem. many years, we recognise that the impact it has on students will At the Grand Final, teams from each school presented their own also benefit those of a younger experiments to a panel of AWE judges who scruitinised the experiments age. and the science behind them. The overall winning team was Brimpton CofE Primary School with their Fireworks in a jar experiment. Supported by business volunteers the workshops helped Encouraging youngsters to save with JNBS! students understand the true cost of living in a fun and Junior Newbury Building Society (JNBS) is a chance for engaging way. youngsters to start saving on a weekly basis at school! One student said, “Amazing, I JNBS is one of our extremely successful programmes have learnt a lot, and run in partnership with Newbury Building Society, where branches are currently opened in primary schools this could help with my throughout West Berkshire and South Oxfordshire. life in the future” Year 6 cashiers are trained to run their branch regularly and Another added, “I was encourage and help the younger children to save their money where it is then transferred to their own savings accounts. shocked about We have recently been interviewing Year 5 applicants who wish to everything my parents be the next cashiers, giving children the experience of filling in have to go through!” application forms and having interviews. Successful candidates get to take part in a training day in September at their local Newbury Find out about our Building Society branch, where they learn all about becoming a primary Job cashier and working in a building society, ready to set-up their Safaris on the next page… branches in school! Job Safari… Spotlights! Year 6 students from local primary schools Did you know…this term Thatcham Park and we’ve put 48 businesses under the Thameside in Spotlight at 10 secondary Abingdon had a schools/colleges, across the wonderful time at our Thames Valley and Wiltshire, recent Job Safaris. reaching an amazing total of 1,150 young people! We were joined by a variety of different businesses and children were able to visit each station and learn about the sector, gain an understanding of how employees got to where they are and more about different job roles. Children left the workshops enthused about potential career opportunities and ambitious in their future educational aspirations. Girls in Hi-Tech Our impactful programme designed to inspire and motivate female Year 8 The workshops were targeted at students to consider careers within those students who are either Science, Technology, Engineering and undecided about their career, Maths (STEM). future, have low career aspirations or need motivation to maintain or We worked with The Dorcan Academy, increase their focus on their Swindon. John O’Gaunt School, studies. Hungerford. Royal Wootton Bassett Academy, Denefield Academy, Reading. Little Heath School, Tilehurst and the Downs School, Compton. The analysis of the evaluation data from the students clearly shows the The Spotlights have been very beneficial impact. successful, and we now have schools on a waiting list to do • All of the girls involved said that they had been more! Schools find them very valuable in helping them achieve motivated and inspired by the challenges their Gatsby Benchmark targets • 94% of the girls said that they would enjoy doing with students gaining a lot from these kinds of jobs working with local employers. Students also get the opportunity The format for this event means that it is an effective way for students to find out more about higher to engage directly with hi-tech sector business people. education and further education options. “There are so many job options available for just one company and you don’t need to be the most technical In partnership with person or be the best with computers” student feedback “We have had some very positive feedback from the pupils and it is clear that, as a result of EBP, they have a greater understanding of options that are open to them, once completing their A-Level studies.” Careers Lead at Lydiard Park Academy feedback in a recent Spotlight event AWE Spotlight Bohunt’s Spotlight on Careers Special! Spotlight on Careers In July, AWE graduates took to We recently worked with Bohunt School to give 180 Year 9 Park House, Newbury and Little students amazing Spotlight on Careers experiences. Heath, Reading, where they Over two days, young people got the opportunity to spend time were joined by students from with three businesses: Denefied, Reading and Mary Hare, Newbury, to showcase • Archibald Shaw, where they learnt about engineering and careers and pathways in STEM. built their own bridges. • BIMM, where they learnt about technology and used The opportunity, open to Year 12 students, gave them hands software to create their own music. on challenges to carry out to • Waitrose, where they investigated retail and what the explore STEM. future holds for an ever-changing industry. The graduates were able to Students were able to gain valuable insight into how STEM is used educate the students about in each of the organisations, with hands on tasks and learning STEM degrees, apprenticeships about the career paths within the different sectors. and career pathways, including: Engineering (civil, mechanical, medical, chemical, electrical and “Enlightening and aeronautical) Physics interesting, this has Astronomy given me more options to Chemistry Biochemistry tudent think about” s Biology feedback Maths Computer Science Work place visits The event was a great way to In addition, twelve lucky Year 9 students were given the unique engage in STEM and ask recent opportunity of visiting a workplace to gain experience of the graduates about their working world. Students visited Reading Buses (mechanics), The experiences Dogs Trust (animal care) and Nirvana Spa (Hospitality, Health and Beauty). On each visit they received a tour and talked to the staff “Very helpful and informative, about career opportunities and the skills and qualities required to gave me a clearer pathway into work in each sector. STEM” Student COMING UP… Hi-Tech Horizons From September 2019 we will be launching our new Hi- Tech Horizons programme which aims to get 50,000 pupils in front of pioneering hi-tech businesses over 5 years.