Careers Education
Careers Education & Aspiration-Raising
At Kells Lane, we believe that ambition begins early. Children who can imagine a future for themselves are more motivated, more engaged and more resilient learners — and it is never too soon to start widening what that future might look like.
Our careers education and aspiration-raising programme is not a single event or a one-off assembly. It is woven through our curriculum, our enrichment offer and our school culture — helping every child develop the knowledge, confidence and aspiration to Find Their Remarkable, wherever that might lead.
“Find Your Remarkable” is not just a school motto. It is a promise — that every child who passes through our doors will leave knowing they are capable of more than they imagined.
Our Careers Lead
Our careers education and aspiration-raising programme is led by Mrs Lucy Duckworth, who coordinates the school’s careers activities, organises our annual Careers Day, and builds the community and employer partnerships that connect children to the world of work.
Learning from Remarkable People
One of the most powerful ways to raise aspiration is to put children in contact with remarkable lives — people who faced obstacles, persevered, and changed the world. At Kells Lane, this is not an add-on. It is built into the curriculum.
Our carefully sequenced programme of Competency Units places remarkable historical figures at the heart of children’s learning, using their stories not just as history lessons but as mirrors — held up so that every child can see what remarkable looks like, and believe it is possible for them too.
The Competency Units — Creativity, Commitment, Courage and Community
• Elizabeth Blackwell — the first woman to receive a medical degree in the United States, who fought tirelessly against the barriers that stood between her and her ambition. Her story teaches children about Courage and the power of refusing to accept that something is impossible.
• Walter Tull — the first Black officer to lead British troops in combat, who overcame racial discrimination to serve his country and lead others with dignity and distinction. His story teaches children about Commitment and what it means to serve a community larger than yourself.
• Flora Drummond — a North East suffragette who campaigned fearlessly for women’s right to vote, connecting national history to our own region. Her story teaches children about Courage and the importance of standing up for justice.
• Martin Luther King Jr — whose ‘I Have a Dream’ speech and leadership of the American civil rights movement is studied in Year 6, with direct connections drawn to Newcastle and the North East. His story teaches children about Community and the transformative power of peaceful protest.
• Sir Joseph Swan — inventor of the world’s first practical incandescent light bulb, who lived on Kells Lane North just streets from our school. His house was the first in England to be lit by domestic electric lighting. His story is our most local, most vivid proof that remarkable things can happen anywhere — even here, even now, even you.
Sir Joseph Swan changed the world from the end of our road. We hold his story up to every child and say: this is what remarkable looks like. It starts with curiosity. It grows through determination. And it can happen anywhere.
Careers Day — Year 6
Every June, Year 6 children take part in our Careers Day — a morning event held in the KS2 Hall that brings approximately 18 professionals and community volunteers into school to give children a genuine, first-hand encounter with the world of work. The event is structured like a carousel — children rotate around the hall in small groups, spending time with each professional in turn.
The format is deliberately conversational and child-led: children are not passive listeners but active interviewers, asking each volunteer four key questions:
• What does your career involve?
• How enjoyable do you find it?
• What was your route into this career?
• How does your career connect to what you learned at school?
This structured approach ensures children come away with more than just a vague sense of what different jobs exist. They understand the pathway from school to career, the real human experience of working life, and — crucially — the direct connection between the subjects they study today and the opportunities available to them tomorrow.
With around 18 different careers represented in a single morning, children encounter an extraordinary breadth of professional life — from healthcare and law to the arts, trades, business, technology and public service. Many children will encounter careers they have never considered before, or meet someone who has taken an unexpected route into a role they thought was out of reach.
Careers Day is organised and led by Mrs Lucy Duckworth and is made possible by the generosity of our parent and community volunteers. If you work in an interesting field and would like to talk to our Year 6 children about your career, we would love to hear from you - KellsLane@klps.org.uk | 0191 433 4140
NUFC Foundation Careers Hub — MetroCentre
Year 5 children visit the NUFC Foundation Careers Hub at the MetroCentre — an immersive careers experience that introduces children to the world of work, the skills needed for a range of jobs, and the connection between what they learn in school and the careers of the future.
During the visit, children explore the Careers Hub and carry out real interviews with local business managers — including the manager of The Entertainer — asking about their role, how they got there, and what they look for in people who work for them. This is not a passive experience. Children are active participants: asking questions, gathering information, making connections and thinking critically about the working world they are preparing to enter.
The NUFC Foundation Careers Hub visit is delivered in partnership with the Newcastle United Foundation — bringing the reach and credibility of a major regional institution to the school’s careers programme.
Careers in the Curriculum
Aspiration-raising at Kells Lane is not confined to dedicated careers events. It is woven into the curriculum across every year group, with children regularly encountering the world of work, community roles and professional life as part of their learning.
Remarkable scientists
Our science curriculum introduces children to the lives of remarkable scientists — men and women who changed the world through curiosity, persistence and brilliance. Children learn not just what these scientists discovered, but who they were, what obstacles they overcame and how their work connects to careers and industries today.
This approach ensures that science is never just a body of knowledge — it is a human endeavour, and one that children can see themselves as part of.
Current careers linked to curriculum units
Throughout the science curriculum, current careers are explicitly linked to the topics children are studying. When children study electricity, they learn about the role of electricians and electrical engineers. When they study forces, structures or materials, they encounter the work of civil and mechanical engineers. These connections are deliberate and consistent — helping children understand that what they are learning in the classroom today has real, tangible career applications in the world around them.
This is particularly powerful for children who may not have family connections to professional or technical careers — giving them a window into possibilities they might not otherwise see.
Enterprise education — the Fiver Challenge
Selected children at Kells Lane take part in the Fiver Challenge — a structured enterprise programme provided by Young Enterprise, the UK’s leading enterprise and financial education charity. Working through the Fiver DIY workbook across six sessions, children develop real entrepreneurial skills by building an enterprise project from the ground up.
Activities include creating a business name and logo, conducting market research, planning a product or service, and culminating in writing and delivering a formal sales pitch. Children also take part in an internal competition for the best logo design — bringing a healthy competitive edge to the programme and giving every child the chance to shine in a different way.
The programme develops core enterprise skills that are transferable to any future career: communication, confidence, creativity, financial literacy and the ability to plan, adapt and present ideas persuasively. The Fiver Challenge is led in school by Miss Ollerton, who guides children through the programme across the spring and summer terms.
Find out more about the Fiver Challenge at fiverchallenge.org.uk - https://www.fiverchallenge.org.uk/
Careers from the very beginning — Early Years and Key Stage 1
Our careers and aspiration-raising programme begins in Nursery and Reception — long before children are thinking consciously about the world of work. Through carefully planned real-world experiences, our youngest children begin to understand the range of roles people play in their community and the value of every job.
• Nursery & Reception — Help is at Hand: children learn about the people who help us in our community — speaking to and learning from professionals working in the Police, the Ambulance Service and the NHS. Children develop an early understanding that the community around them is held together by people who have chosen careers of service and care.
• Reception — Farm visit: Reception children visit a local farm, experiencing life on a working farm first-hand and learning about what it means to work in agriculture. Children see animals, explore the land and speak to the people who work there — encountering a career many of them will never have experienced through their family or community.
• Year 1 — Local area walk: Year 1 children take a walk around their local area, speaking to people working in the shops, the bakery and the grocery. These conversations — with real people in real workplaces just streets from school — are often the first time children have thought about the person behind the till or behind the counter as someone with a career, a skill, and a reason for doing what they do.
These early experiences are not trivial. Research consistently shows that children’s career aspirations begin forming in primary school, and that exposure to a wide range of jobs and roles in the early years is one of the most powerful ways to widen ambition.
At Kells Lane, this work begins from day one.
• Local business visits — children visit local businesses to understand how their community works, explore different job roles and see how businesses contribute to everyday life
• Author visits — through the Gateshead Author Events programme, children meet published authors and understand what a creative career looks like in practice
• Science curriculum — links to careers in science, engineering and technology are built into every unit, including the Year 5 study of the Dogger Bank Wind Farm and the renewable energy careers it is creating in the North East
• Arts and cultural partnerships — through Shape, the Glasshouse and the Shipley Art Gallery, children encounter creative professionals working in the arts, music and cultural sectors
• Sports Premium — children engage with sports coaches, PE professionals and community sport leaders as part of our enrichment programme
The Gatsby Careers Benchmark
Kells Lane’s careers education programme is guided by the Gatsby Careers Benchmark — the national framework for high-quality careers education in schools. The Gatsby Benchmarks set out eight standards that define what good careers education looks like, from stable careers leadership and learning from career and labour market information to encounters with employers and employees and experiences of workplaces.
Our careers programme is planned and reviewed against the Gatsby Benchmarks by Mrs Lucy Duckworth, who works closely with Paul Talent of the North East Ambition team. Paul supports Kells Lane in developing and strengthening its careers offer, ensuring our programme is current, evidence-informed and connected to the wider regional careers education network.
Using the Gatsby Benchmarks means our careers education is not left to chance or limited to occasional events. It is planned, progressive and designed to give every child — regardless of background — the knowledge, encounters and experiences that open doors.
North East Ambition Primary Network
Kells Lane is an active member of the North East Ambition Primary Network — a regional network of primary schools working together to raise aspirations and improve careers education for children across the North East. Mrs Duckworth attends the Primary Network conference multiple times a year, bringing back the latest thinking, resources and opportunities in careers education and sharing them with staff across the school. This keeps Kells Lane’s careers programme current, connected and informed by what is happening across the region.
The network is delivered by the North East Ambition team, working under the North East Mayoral Strategic Authority — the regional body committed to raising aspiration and improving outcomes for young people across the North East.
Being part of this network ensures Kells Lane is connected to the wider regional careers and ambition agenda, and that our children benefit from opportunities and thinking that extend well beyond our school gates.
Aspiration for Every Child
Our careers education and aspiration-raising programme is built on a simple belief: every child at Kells Lane, regardless of background or starting point, deserves to see a future for themselves that is ambitious, achievable and exciting.
We use our Pupil Premium funding deliberately to ensure that children from disadvantaged backgrounds have equal access to the experiences, encounters and opportunities that build aspiration — because we know that cultural capital and career awareness are not equally distributed, and that schools have a responsibility to level that playing field.
Every child who leaves Kells Lane should know three things: what they are good at, what they find interesting, and that remarkable things are possible for people like them.