Background

At the end of 2010, we began a programme pilot working with primary schools in Westminster. The project introduces 6/7 year old girls in inner city primary schools to women at work. The programme is based on the principle that girls from lower income backgrounds, particularly in areas of high unemployment, often do not get many opportunities to see a diversity of working 'role models'. The project is based on the assertion that introducing such girls to women in the workplace raises aspirations and is motivating in both the short and the long term.

The Targeted Approach

Projects and initiatives aiming to raise aspirations are generally targeted at secondary school level. Specifically in relation to raising long-term aspirations this is often belated, largely because pupils tend to relate their ambitions to their academic performance. In light of the existing socio-economic achievement gap, waiting until secondary school can therefore mean failing to capture the imaginations of many young people.

In primary school by contrast, children tend to formulate a broader projected vision of their aspirations in relation to the short, medium and long term. As such, motivation through this type of project has the potential to impact on what a child feels they are able to do today and their successes and how they feel about opportunities when they leave primary school.

There are a number of reasons why the project focuses on girls. The first is that girls are less likely to be exposed to opportunities generally (particularly in areas of deprivation and secondly, a targeted approach is likely to be more effective. Girls are a vital transmitter of aspirations and life chanced for future generations affecting the life chances of future generations.

Where we are: Month One

Background research

Finding comparable programmes, national and international

To provide schools and parents with evidence that a programme such as this would in fact be of benefit to those involved and in order to justify the targeted approach adopted, it was felt necessary to research programmes with similar aims (namely female empowerment and raising aspirations) currently or previously in operation and on both national and international level. Some examples included:

• 'I can be Barbie': an education programme designed to encourage children aged from 5 to 11 to explore the world of work in a fun and engaging way. Packs are provided for teachers with job related lesson plans and extension activities aiming to inspire girls and included on the website is a variety of teaching resources including lesson plans, interactive white boards and power point presentations


• 'Take our Sons and Daughters to Work Day': designed to be more than a career day, the Take Our Daughters And Sons To Work program goes beyond the average "shadow" an adult by exposing girls and boys to what a parent or mentor in their lives does during the work day and helping them discover the power and possibilities associated with a balanced work and family life.


• Programme run by the DCSF Information Advice and Guidance in Schools and Further Education team who worked with Teacher's TV to produce a programme about raising aspirations at Key Stage 2 through career-related learning. Pupils are inspired by local employees such as telecommunications engineers, chemists and mechanics.

Practical Progress

Initial sessions with schools, familiarising the staff and parents with the aims and structure of the project took place at the beginning of November.

Subsequently, there have been successful workplace visits (to MPs at Westminster), with visiting women in Parliament the first tranche. A prescriptive structure has been developed as this has been found to be more sustainable in the long run, contributing to one of the aims of the pilot - finding a workable formula that allows the programme to run itself and be 'self-sufficient' in primary schools.

Structure - in schools:

• Briefing prior to visit, involving a brief discussion with the girls about the visit: where they were going, what they were going to be doing, why they were doing it etc.
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• Preparing questions to ask the women at work, for homework.


• Going on the visit.


• Writing a 'Thank you' letter to the visited woman, reflecting on what they thought of the project, which is beneficial on a number of levels. Aside from the literacy element this serves to consolidate the visit and signal the importance of expressing thanks, as well as allowing for another level of engagement (a photograph of the girls together with the female employee is sent with the thank you card; both are photocopied and kept for records).

This structure is important as it helps achieve the objective of the programme, that is, enhancing the girls' understanding of the different types of jobs available to them, providing them with role models and also importantly providing them with experience outside the classroom and their neighbourhoods - astonishingly, despite the fact that they live within walking distance, none of the girls who went on the visit had ever been to the Houses of Parliament, for example.

Structure -in the workplace:

It has been found to be important to very explicitly outline the structure of the visit, in order to ensure that activities are age-appropriate. As such women being visited are sent a plan, via email, in advance, along with details of the school and the particular group visiting.

Next steps

Early next term the MP visits will finish and girls will be visiting a wide range of female employees in a variety of sectors.