Raising Aspirations
The Raising Aspirations project at Rhyl has been running since 2013. It is a unique and innovative programme to support our children to learn about the world of work through first hand experience and engagement with employers. We were delighted that Sir Keir Starmer MP recognised the project in his speech to the Confederation of British Industry in November 2021. You can watch his speech by clicking on the link here.
We want our children to broaden their horizons, understand what they could achieve and raise their aspirations for their future. We want our pupils to have a clear understanding of the link between achieving well at school and getting into an interesting job and career that is not bound by social mobility and gender stereotypes. Through the programme, children expand their knowledge and understanding of the world of work, the types of jobs there are and different career paths. In particular, Raising Aspirations has shown to have changed the attitudes of girls about their future career choices.
In Year 5 children take part in the Raising Aspirations programme. Each term they are visited in school by an inspirational speaker from business and they also visit a place of work to learn about different careers.
The children were thrilled to meet Lewis Hamilton as part of our partnership with Mercedes. Click on the photo to watch the advert where our children appear.
The children also took part in a project with Mercedes to build a car. You can watch the video by clicking the image below.
2022-23 Partnerships
In 2022-23 our partnerships continue with:
- The Ritz
- Josh Seigal – poet
- Dogs Trust
- Efe Eguko from Civil Service
- Derwent
- Caxton Rhode Graphic Design
- Hew Leith from 10x
- Dusty Knuckle Bakery
- Mercedes – Whisper Productions
- Outlandish
- NHS Strategy
Impact
I learnt that…
‘you can get any job you want’
‘you need to give your best to get the job you want’
‘you need different qualifications for different jobs’
‘it takes hard work to get to the position of where you want to be’
‘when we grow up we will get a choice of a job’
‘people who are famous and rich always start from somewhere.’
‘I have learnt about working and getting a job, that you don’t always need to go to university to get the job you want, or don’t always have to have a good background.’
‘What I learnt is that you can’t just wish what job you have and that you have work to it.’
Before Raising Aspirations I thought…
‘there were certain jobs for men and women’
‘nothing about jobs because I didn’t know’
‘jobs were not really fun’
‘I didn’t know what job I would like to do’
‘you could only work one job.’
‘That people always got their jobs from university’
‘you just go in and you’re in the business but you don’t you have make an effort to get the job’
‘you could get any job you want without qualifications’
Now I think…
‘I have some ideas of who I want to be when I’m older.’
‘it is good to get a job’
‘that I can be whatever I would like to be if I work hard’
‘no-one in jobs all have the same skin colour’
‘You can’t get a good job without pushing yourself to your best’
‘That if we have no raising aspirations, we will not know about any of this’
‘that with just a little bit of hard work, you can get anyway where you want, by believing in yourself.’
‘men and women can do any job they want’
If you would like to find out more about the project, or to get involved as one of our partnership companies please contact the school office or email admin@rhylprim.camden.sch.uk. Click on the image below to learn more.
