At Westbourne Primary School, we have high ambitions for all of our pupils and we believe it is never too early to instil a sense of aspiration and determination from a young age. Teachers enhance curriculum topics and educational visits by investigating and learning about different careers linked to the topic. This is to widen the variety of different career options our pupils are exposed to throughout their time at primary school.
Throughout school we learn about careers in different ways suitable for the pupils. In Early Years, children are introduced to different jobs throughout our topics, interests and role-play, examples of these are: florist, hairdressers, shopkeepers, doctor surgeries. Teachers focus on the language and skills needed within these jobs, making it fun for our children.
In Key Stage One, children learn about people who help us in Year One examples of this are: firefighters, nurses, dentists and teachers. In Year Two children study famous people with interesting and unusual jobs, including: Amelia Earhart, the first female to fly solo across the Atlantic, Robert Falcon Scott a famous explorer, and Grace Darling, a lighthouse keeper. They also learn about a zookeeper’s role before visiting Chester Zoo.
In Key Stage Two, children in Year Three and Four children learn about archaeologists during topics about Romans and the Stone Age. They also study marine biologists and research female scientists. In Year Five and Six children have visitors from Bradford University and Cambridge University who lead a workshop to inspire our children to attend university themselves. This also enables children to find out more about university and ask questions to professionals. Year Six teachers link careers in their curriculum including a unit about innovation where children discuss specific jobs linked to creating a new product, such as designers, engineers and manufacturers.
We have a focused Careers Week every year, children have visits from people in different careers and can ask lots of questions. As a school, we are always looking for people with interesting careers willing to talk to and inspire our children, if you have an interesting career or a family member who does please let us know! We were very lucky this year and we had visits from a storyteller, an actress, a doctor, a nurse and a pilot.
