VIEW FROM THE CLASSROOM


teachers and volunteer helpers, but Barnes have hosted visits from two schools so far and take their commitment to the project and literacy seriously. Not only is the company a partner in the National Literacy Trust’s Swindon Stories campaign, which aims to boost literacy levels throughout the town, but they have also joined 78 other businesses in signing the charity’s Vision for Literacy Business Pledge 2020. Every year we read that employers are


Barnes Coaches Swindon Rachael Burns, Project Manager - Words for Work at the National Literacy Trust, had accompanied the children on their visit to Barnes Coaches, a local family business which offers traditional days out, trips to theatres and the races. Some of the coaches are retro style and used for UK coach holidays but they also have some up-to-the- minute coaches, including the Swindon town double-decker footballer bus. They were collected in a Barnes coach by a


female driver, but this was not nearly as exciting as going through the coach wash. 'Some of the children put their hoods up at this point,' said Rachael, 'and there was lots of squealing and giggling.' Some of the children thought the company


made coaches and were surprised when they were taken into offices. Here they were given clipboards and had a sheet with pictures of items that they had to spot and tick off such as a phone and a computer, books, a clock and meeting room. Then they were split into small groups led by one of the employees who had volunteered to talk about their job. They met a mechanic, a cleaner, a driver, a booking clerk plus the person who does all the final checks on a coach before it goes out. The volunteers talked about how reading, writing, speaking and listening were part of their everyday tasks and the children were able to make links between the skills taught in school and how these can be applied to a workplace. The visit finished with a detective activity where


they drew items out of a bag and had to guess what they were and what they were used for. They had a roadmap, a satnav, a health and safety checklist that the company uses just before a coach goes out on the road and a driving licence which some children mistook for a bank card. According to Rachael Burns, the National


Literacy Trust likes to encourage a wide range of workplaces from national companies to local businesses such as Barnes. 'This project helps children find out about careers that aren’t necessarily on their radar, perhaps because they are not available in the locality or they don’t know anyone who does it. It doesn't really matter what the sector is. The programme shows children that all jobs are suitable for them.’ One limiting factor is space. Some small


businesses cannot accommodate 30 children plus April 2020


dissatisfied with school and college leavers’ literacy and numeracy skills. This campaign is asking them to do something about it. The National Literacy Trust website points up the business advantages: 'Research estimates that if every child left primary school with the reading skills they need, our economy could be more than £32.1 billion bigger by 2025 …we need to consider the localised nature of the literacy challenge. 86% of constituencies in England contain at least one ward at risk of serious literacy problems. This requires local and coordinated solutions. The effect of Brexit on the UK makes this local approach more important than ever. We must work together with other businesses, and across sectors, to understand the needs and concerns of our local communities and work to address them.'


The celebration Part of the project is to involve parents. They will learn what their children have been doing and then at home they can talk about jobs and the need for the for literacy skills in everyday life, so for the last half hour Mrs Beale's class took over the hall and the doors were opened to families.


The children read their information from their cards which covered the workplace visit, the different literacy skills they had used in their role play and gave a very clear account of the project from start to finish. Then the parents were invited to see the books the children had been reading: • Pirates in the Supermarket by Timothy Knapman and illustrated by Sarah Warburton • Iggy Peck Architect by Andrea Beaty and David Roberts and illustrated by Chad W. Beckerman • Izzy Gizmo by Pip Jones and illustrated by Sara Ogilvie • Ralph Tells a Story by Abby Hanlon • Busy People: Doctor by Lucy George and illustrated by AndoTwin • The Great Dragon Bake Off by Nicola O'Byrne


Helen Beale described how the books had linked to other curriculum areas. The children had been looking at Brunel, a key local figure in Swindon, and had linked his work as an engineer to their reading of Izzy Peck Architect while after reading Izzy Gizmo the children made their own invention. In the book Izzy designs wings for a crow; some pupils made a doll's leg and another group had the imaginative idea of making a machine that could spit out rainbows. 'The children have loved being involved in the


programme,' said Helen. 'One of the key things about using the stories in this way is that it has given the children an insight into jobs they may not even have heard of. They have begun to understand and use some of the vocabulary in different ways and have begun to talk more about what jobs they would like to do in the future.'


The value of the project I asked Alice Handelman-Pedroza, Senior Project Manager of Words for Work, why the National Literacy Trust had focused on five year olds when it would be another eleven years until they were in a job. She pointed me to research on their site. The Drawing the Future report showed that by the age of 7, children’s aspirations are shaped by gender-related stereotypes about who does certain jobs: boys aspire to traditionally male dominated professions while girls show a greater interest in nurturing and caring related roles. 'We have a flashcard activity for teachers to use


at the beginning of the project with illustrations for different jobs: firefighter, fashion designer, chef, care worker, to encourage discussion about who could do the job,' said Alice. 'They come to realise that there is no such thing as boys' jobs and girls' jobs.' I noticed that they even have a picture of


a female bus driver which would please Barnes Coaches. I finished by asking the class what they had liked best about their workplace trip. The answer was predictable: 'When we went to the toilet.'


Sal McKeown is commissioning editor for Digital Learning magazine


www.education-today.co.uk 17


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