On Friday 11th February the whole of year 9 spent an enjoyable and worthwhile day doing various activities to discover what the world of work entails. Functioning in groups, each student took on the role of a young independent adult living and working in a community.
The day started with the Spin Game, a general knowledge quiz with questions relating to education and work, community and employment. The students were then given the opportunity to create their own dream clouds to explore their aspirations for adult life by choosing a wish list of accommodation, transport, possessions and leisure activities.
After break, jobs were randomly assigned and students took on an occupational role for the remainder of the day. Ms Fretwell encouraged everyone to become absorbed in their new roles as computer programmers, doctors, travel agents, biologists, advertising executives, photographers, plumbers, solicitors amongst others, to investigate aspects of different jobs and so gain an insight into other people’s working lives.
Then it was time for some serious budgeting before lunch, when girls tackled the concept of how to balance income and expenditure. Would everyone be able to have all the items on their dream clouds now that they were working in their new roles? Yes for some, no for others. Ms Fretwell, Mrs Duke and Mrs Hilton helped them to sort out their tax bills and expenses and eventually everyone had somewhere to live, and could afford to eat.
After lunch students did some quick calculations in Budgeting for Leisure when students considered how they might spend their time in a typical week and discovered that there just aren’t enough hours in a day when you are working full time!
We saved the best activity until last: an inter group competition to decide and plan a dream holiday, one that fitted in with everyone’s work schedules AND budgets. Some excellent presentations on proposed trips to destinations such as Jamaica, Florida, Paris, and Amsterdam from each of the groups ended a really successful and memorable day.
A. Fretwell