RAISING ASPIRATIONS
At Westdene, we want to help children to become confident young people with aspiration and drive. The world is moving at such a fast pace – we want to help prepare them for the world of the future, so we make sure we bring the curriculum to life. We ensure pupils have regular opportunities to apply their communication, computing, mathematical, art and design skills through our real life and enterprise activities.
ENTERPRISE FORTNIGHT
Each year our annual Enterprise Fortnight culminates in five year olds running their own bake sale, six year olds designing fruit kebabs and seven year olds developing the entrepreneurial skills to organise their own Easter Fayre. Our junior children learn about fair trade, ethics and sustainability along with working as a team on local and national projects. City regeneration, seafront tourism and the i360, changing UK demographics and striking trade deals for Brexit are just a few of the recent projects they have been excited to learn about.
We are currently planning our Enterprise Fortnight 2024 to link to our sustainability work with Our City, Our World! This will take place in March 2024.
At Westdene a focus on enterprise enables us to broaden our pupils’ horizons and develop leadership and teamwork skills.
CAREERS FAIRS
At Westdene we have a track record of providing careers education for our children. Our pupils are inspired to think about future careers and work with adults from inside and outside of school to develop their skills, expertise and ambitions. This focus helps pupils to develop an understanding of different career paths and to challenge stereotypes.
As part of our ‘Routes to Success’ project, children enjoyed meeting visiting speakers from:
- the UK Space Industry
- Video Games Design
- Festival Organisation
- Engineering
- Digital Media
- TV
- Film
- Nutrition
- Business
- Social Work
- Psychology
- Law
Children found out how our visitors first entered their industries- they found out about the training and qualifications they would need and there was also a focus on personal attributes you need to be successful.
For example:
Interpersonal skills
Punctuality
An eye for design
Written & Verbal Communication
Listening Skills
Time Management- meeting deadlines
Reliability
How to Establish Trust
Accuracy and Attention to Detail
CAREERS IN STEM & STEAM
The children are now well aware of how much revenue is generated by the creative industries in the UK as well as some of the exciting opportunities on offer in STEM and STEAM careers (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts & Mathematics.)
All of our careers work at Westdene is designed to be highly motivational and inspire children whilst broadening horizons and outlook.