Work Week’s new look for the new year

Our flagship primary programme, Work Week, has been introducing local primary pupils to the world of work for an incredible 10 years. Over that time, it’s reached nearly 20,000 pupils, recruited hundreds of volunteers and delivered thousands of hours of work-related learning to local children.

To celebrate its tremendous success and achievements, we thought it was about time to give the programme a snazzy new look! Pictured are Programme Manager Claire Butler and Programme Officer Alex Straker, who coordinate and deliver Work Week, showing off the new banner that will be hanging outside every school taking part in the programme from this September – starting at Queensbridge Primary School next week!

“Work Week does so much to help local children imagine their futures, and it’s great to have that represented visually,” said Claire. “We want all children to understand that they can be whatever they want to be – regardless of gender or cultural stereotypes – and Work Week is a really powerful tool to help them do that.”

The programme provides schools with lesson plans, activities and resources, as well as access to real workplaces and in-school sessions from world of work volunteers. Each year group follows a different theme, including Emergency Services, Enterprise and Ethical Fashion, so the programme stays fresh and engaging as children progress through primary school.

Teachers tell us that the model really works for pupils. “Work Week is a really good way to enlighten children about the world of work,” one teacher told us after their school took part in Work Week last year; another said that their pupils “now understand the links between skills learnt in school and how those skills will help them get jobs in the future.”

Pupils approve too, with 83% of children taking part in 2015/16 rating the programme as ‘Excellent’ or ‘Good’. “Work Week made me think about what I want to do in the future,” said one pupil from Daubeney Primary School. One Year 5 pupil from Morningside Primary School summed up their learning from the week with this inspiring phase: “you can become the person you want to be if you believe in yourself”.

“Work Week is such a unique programme,” said Samantha Dodd, Senior Programme Manager at Inspire!. “It really helps embed an understanding of how learning links to the wider world, and its whole school approach means all children, no matter their circumstances, get to benefit from the same exposure to inspirational role models. We hope it’ll go on to be even more successful in its next 10 years!”

For more information about Work Week,visit our Primary programmes page. Current volunteering opportunities can be found here.