VIEW FROM THE CLASSROOM
of taking metal items into a scanner. During each activity, the speakers have talked about their educational experiences, the challenges they faced and what they would tell their 13-year-old selves if they could travel back in time. Wonderfully, each activity has had a focus on different routes into STEM subjects, which has been truly inspiring for our students.
How is introducing the world of work benefitting your students?
Students have really enjoyed hearing from ‘real’ people who are using the sciences we teach. It has helped them see why and how their knowledge and skills may be useful to them later in life and has opened their eyes to routes into STEM careers.
It has also acted like a memory hook – we can talk about these events at multiple points across their science education.
Has this project changed your students’ view of science?
Before this pilot, students had preconceived ideas that only ‘highly academic men’ could work in the field of STEM. This project has challenged those misconceptions and removed a cloak of mystery as to what being a ‘physicist’ really means! Because of this, we’ve seen a 40% decrease in perception of having to be academic to work in a STEM related job.
What results have you seen from connecting students with local industries and businesses?
All of our students who took part in the pilot completed both a pre-activity and post activity survey (helpfully provided as part of the project with North East LEP). The evaluation showed:
• 100% of students enjoyed linking their learning in science lessons to a practical project with an employee.
• 92% of students felt that working on a project with an employer helped them to understand the importance of science in the world of work.
• 92% of students felt they had learnt about new roles in STEM
The biggest result for us has been watching our students realise they can work in STEM and build a successful career in a field that felt out of reach to them, being the first in their family to study science beyond school.
Students are hugely grateful to learn from adults not in their school – they realise how special that opportunity is and feel a sense of pride that they are able to access these sessions. This has led to a real improvement in their ‘can do’ attitude in lessons. They also have greater resilience, approaching problem-solving ‘like workers do’ and we have seen an increase in uptake of our science based extra-curricular clubs.
Why do you think this has worked well for your school?
Our students face many barriers, a major one being self-belief and how they view their job prospects.
This pilot has allowed them to view themselves
as scientists, link the work they do in class to real world jobs and opened their eyes to a life in STEM.
What advice would you have for other schools who are looking to connect their students with local industries and businesses? I would say start small. Choose one area you feel the students are lacking real-world connections with and then think creatively in terms of businesses that can support you. See if you or your colleagues know of anyone who works in those businesses (if you can get a foot into a company it will give you a great start) and if not, pick up the phone or drop them an email. In my experience, businesses want to help and often just need an opportunity to trial things with a supportive school. However, if you’re struggling to make connections or get businesses on board, reach out to a local enterprise partnership or similar network for more help.
Finally, what’s next for Callerton Academy? Next is expansion across subjects, into work experience and into our GCSE curriculum! We are currently going through the second cycle with existing business links from year one of the pilot. This year we are adding an activity with Jacobs, an international global solutions company based in Newcastle, looking at electric vehicle solutions to travel in Newcastle – linking to ‘big issues in science.’
This has also allowed us to expand curriculum links to our English departments – helping to develop students’ persuasive writing skills – and with our maths department to support the understanding and use of number sequence and statistics.
We look forward to continuing to work with, and expanding, our net of local businesses and forging even more opportunities that will positively impact our students in the years to come.
To find out more about the ‘Linking Curriculum to the World of Work’ pilot project from the North of Tyne Combined Authority (NTCA) and North East Local Enterprise Partnership (North East LEP), go to:
https://www.northoftyne-ca.gov.uk/what- we-do/projects/education-inclusion-and- skills/education-improvement-programme/
March 2024
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