"If you can't see it, you can't be it!"

Marian Wright Edelman, an American activist for children's rights.

Careers - Our Vision at Vane Road

If our children don't see people like themselves succeeding in a particular career, they will not believe it's a possibility for them. We know that even at the young age of three or four, children are already starting to form their first aspirations. By six they are starting to have opinions on what they think they can or can’t do in the future. By the time they’re 10, young people start to make decisions which could go on to limit their future options.

At Vane Road Primary School, we believe that all children have the potential to flourish, reach their full potential and be whatever they aspire to be in life. Our School Values and Key Curriculum drivers underpin this belief:

- our curriculum is driven by challenging stereotypes and building cultural capital where our children have the knowledge and experiences to be successful and make choices without limits;

- our curriculum promotes the importance of being aspirational where our children believe that they can achieve ambitious goals in order to have a successful career.

Miss Wren is our new Careers Champion and she will endeavour to ensure that all of the children at Vane Road believe that they can achieve ambitious goals in order to be a success in any career they wish to follow. Miss Wren will be organising visits to local employers and inviting guest speakers to deliver assemblies about Further Education opportunities, careers and job roles.

Year 6 are looking forward to visiting Hitachi and Husqvarna at the end of September. This is a fantastic opportunity for the children to experience a real working environment and will hopefully inspire some future Engineers and Technicians.

We are also working with North East Ambition who are delivering training to Staff and supporting Miss Wren to embed our Careers Awareness across school.

What does this look like in our school?

Making meaningful links to the world of work within curriculum lessons
Providing children with opportunities to learn from real world contexts, interact with employers and experience workplaces
Enabling children to make links between what they are learning in the classroom and the practical application of that knowledge (and skills)
Ensuring that children begin to understand the skills required in the workplace and have opportunities to develop these
Helping children understand the opportunities available to them in the local and regional labour market, and variety of pathways into these roles, including through further and higher education.

Proud to be part of the North East Combined Authority’s North East Ambition Primary Network, a network of primary schools across the region embedding meaningful careers related learning that will raise aspirations, challenge stereotypes, and help children connect the classroom to the world around them.

Our KS2 children answered questions about careers and learning about careers. Please check the results of the survey below.

Year 6 Factory Visits

As part of our new Career awareness Miss Wren our Careers Lead, organised visits to Hitachi and Husqvarna.

Class 14 visited Hitachi on Tuesday. It was fascinating to see the size of the factory, we had a tour of the entire site, walked through a brand new first class train carriage and sat in the driver’s seat. We also saw the replica Locomotion No.1 close up which was an amazing experience. One interesting fact that we found out was the factory has 5 miles of train tracks on site.

Class 13 visited Husqvarna on Wednesday and we were given a tour of the whole of the factory floor, we learnt about the history of Husqvarna and were able to ask questions to some of the employees who showed us around. The children were particularly interested in the robots in the Moulding Plant and everyone had a go at controlling a mini robot on the factory floor. The children asked questions such as: Did you know you were going to be doing this job when you were our age? Did school prepare you for your careers?

Employees from both factories commented on the impeccable behaviour of our Year 6 children and said that they would invite primary schools into their organisations in the future because of this. We hope that these visits have inspired some future engineers and technicians.

Careers Assembly - Guest Speaker - Mark Solan

The Solan Connor Fawcett Family Cancer Trust (Team Solan) teamsolan.org.uk

We had a very special guest leading Monday’s Assembly alongside Miss Wren for our Key Stage 2 children, Mark Solan. Mark is the Founder of Team Solan, a charity based in Spennymoor who have raised thousands of pounds for families battling with Cancer. As part of our Career’s Curriculum Mark talked to the children about a day in the life of a Charity Founder. He also detailed the roles of his team and the volunteers who help run the charity. The children asked thought provoking questions such as, “How did you become a founder of this charity?” and “What kind of support does you charity offer?”

Mark commented on the children’s excellent behaviour during his Assembly. As a thank you to Mark we would like to make a donation to this incredible charity. On the 17th December we are inviting children to wear Winter Jumpers and we would be very grateful if you could make a small donation of £1 on this day (this is not compulsory). Mark said that £400 would be enough to ensure that a family affected by Cancer and unable to currently work would have a wonderful Christmas.

About Team Solan

Mark sadly lost both his Mother and Grandmother to cancer. Mark had recently turned 42 (the same age his Mother was diagnosed terminally ill with cancer) and set himself a fundraising target of £1,000. The event ended up raising a huge £21,315 for Cancer Research UK. Excited and inspired by his ability to raise such an incredible amount of money, Mark wanted to support more individuals and families affected by cancer in the North East. The Solan Connor Fawcett Family Cancer Trust was launched in 2016 to help those touched by cancer.

What does Team Solan do?

“We provide bespoke help and support for our Warriors and their families”

Team Solan aims to improve the quality of life of children and adults who have been affected by a cancer diagnosis or cancer bereavement.

We provide bespoke help and support for our Warriors* and their families including emotional, physical, and practical needs.

We have a boutique and furniture store in Spennymoor and provide a range of services from our premises including holistic therapies, counselling, hair and beauty, regular support groups, coffee mornings, and a weekly drop in for current and new Warriors.

We understand everyone’s journey is unique and the services we provide help with the stress and worry people might experience whilst dealing with a cancer diagnosis. We look to bring some normality at a time when people are also dealing with the obstacles of day-to-day life.