Ethical enterprise extravaganza for Primary pupils!

This year, we’ve given our flagship primary programme, Work Week, a bit of a revamp to keep it as relevant and engaging as ever for local children. One of the new activities for the 2015/16 school year puts an ethical and creative spin on enterprise education and introduces pupils to jobs in the fashion industry.

Year 5 pupils from Thomas Fairchild Community School enjoyed a week of work-related activities, working in small teams to start an ethical fashion company, research potential products, cost their designs and create them from recycled and salvaged materials. The week culminated in a final catwalk show where the pupils’ companies showcased their designs.

Work Week is a highly successful, high-impact programme for all the pupils in a primary school, which brings careers, enterprise and the world of work to life. Every year Work Week reaches thousands of children from Hackney, Camden and Islington, introducing them to a vast range of jobs and career paths through sessions with employee volunteers as well as visits to real workplaces. It is also increasingly being commissioned by schools in other boroughs, further extending the reach of this important work.

One of the revamped sessions for Year 5 introduces pupils to a volunteer from the fashion and creative industries, who talks about their career and the variety of roles available in their field. Thomas Fairchild pupils met Thomas Bird, a set designer who specialises in high fashion photoshoots. ‘I had a fantastic experience working with the children,’ said Thomas, ‘their creativity when developing the catwalk sets was inspiring and a pleasure to see. I’m looking forward to working with the Inspire! team again in the future.’

The feedback from the pupils’ teachers was fantastic. ‘Thank you,’ one commented, ‘what a great experience to see the children be truly creative.’ The pupils approved as well, telling us they learnt about ethical companies, different jobs in the fashion industry and how to work as a team. One Year 5 wrote that they were very pleased to have taken part in Work Week, ‘because not many schools have the chance to do this.’

Hannah Groves, the Senior Programme Manager for our Primary team, said: ‘We’ve really enjoyed refreshing our Work Week programme to keep pace with the changing landscape of careers in Hackney and neighbouring boroughs. Fashion and design are now key parts of the local economy, so we think it’s vitally important that young residents understand and aspire to be part of them. It’s also a great chance for the children to see how creativity and business can come together to make something exciting!’

To find out more about Work Week, please call 020 7275 6060 or email info@inspire-ebp.org.uk.