Primary Future Skills Programme

The ‘Getting Started’ tasks under ‘Classwork’ are designed to be completed independently or in pairs. They can be completed as a short starter activity to encourage enthusiasm about the prospect of working for The Challenger Academy:

• Job offer letter & calculating pay
• Learning about The Challenger Academy
• The World of Advertising | VCCP London discussion
• Confidence (Pre-survey) - this will measure impact, pupils should complete this without support

Pupils should open the ‘Thinkers, Doers, Makers’ slide deck and watch the video clips and read through the profiles for each job type. They should discuss in pairs, or groups, which job type suits them best or whether they have a combination.

This could provide a stimulus to discuss:

• Job roles and responsibilities
• Skills and strengths
• Different jobs that may include being a ‘Thinker’, ‘Doer’ or ‘Maker’

Pupils should then complete the Skills Profile which will be reviewed at the end of the project to review skills they have developed.

Ask pupils: ‘Is it better to have a team with only ‘Thinkers’ or with a combination of all three? Why?’

This could be an opportunity to organise pupils into groups of 3-5 in preparation for the project.

This section introduces the pupils to the creative ‘brief’ (the task set) by the client, who in this case is Stoke-on-Trent City Council.

The slide deck includes a short summary of the brief with an accompanying video of Councillor and Lord Mayor, Lyn Sharpe, introducing Stoke’s Centenary and heritage.

This could provide a stimulus to discuss:

• Stoke-on-Trent City Council and what a local authority does
• Responsibilities of a Councillor and a Lord Mayor
• Key points mentioned by Cllr Lyn Sharpe about the brief
• Thoughts about the brief and sharing feelings about the challenge

If not done already, pupils should get into groups of 3-5; it is recommended that these groups are mixed ability.

The purpose of the ‘Thinkers Challenger Profile’ is to prepare pupils to respond to the creative brief in a thoughtful and meaningful way.

Before generating ideas, pupils are encouraged to work as a team and complete the research tasks. The tasks include:

1. Poetry analysis
2. Internet research
3. Geography and statistics analysis
4. Questionnaire creation
5. Summary of findings

Teachers may wish to assign each tasks to pupils independently and ask pupils to re-group with their team and share research. Alternatively, teams may complete tasks as a group, sharing roles between the team.

Depending on the time taken to complete the Thinker Challenger Profile, teacher may wish to remove a task, focus solely on one task as a research stimulus and/or set the questionnaire creation as a homework activity.

It is recommended that all groups can summarise their research, known in advertising as ‘The Truth’ by answering the following questions:

• What is important to families living in Stoke-on-Trent?
• What is the most important part of the Centenary?
• Are there other events that families may prefer over the Centenary?

Responding to these questions, could be achieved through group discussions or a whole class discussion.

The next section of ‘Making it Happen’ includes the ‘Makers Challenger Profile’ and this provides pupils with guidance putting their creative ideas together (as they consider their research, ‘budget’ and which ideas are achievable.

Pupils are encouraged to engage with the example advertisement campaigns for print, audio and audio-visual and respond to the analysis questions.

Groups should decide on their chosen output (a billboard poster, a radio advert or a television advert) and begin mind mapping ideas.

Using Adobe Express - AI image generator tool

Pupils can sketch out visual ideas for their advertisement, or could be shown how to use an AI image generator tool to practice inputting a ‘prompt’ to create an AI-generated image. Use of AI in this way mirrors how the advertising industry often use AI to showcase ideas to clients efficiently.

There are some limitations to AI image generators and this may prompt the following discussion points:

• How useful is Artificial Intelligence for creating images for advertisements?
• Are there any concerns that people should consider when using AI? Why?
• What are the limitations of AI images?
• What skills are needed to use generative AI effectively for images?

The next steps will walk through how Adobe Express can be used to create images…

1. Head to: https://www.adobe.com/uk/express/ and ‘create a free account’
2. Once logged in, select ‘Generative AI’ located on the toolbar (top right)
3. Scroll down the webpage and find the ‘Generate image’ icon (left side)
4. Type into the box a ‘prompt’ and press ‘Generate’ - the more detailed and specific a prompt, the more accurate the image will likely be. The prompt element may need to be trailed a few times to achieve a desired effect.
5. Different options of the AI image will show on the left panel and the ‘Generate more’ can be selected to see further results. The images can be downloaded and used in the pupils’ advert pitches.

Additionally, this free webtool can be explored in more detail (time dependent) by pupils to add effects, text and other layouts.

The final task in the ‘Making it Happen’ section encourages groups to organise a presentation to share their finalised creative ideas. Groups could present using Google Slides (or PowerPoint), showcasing ideas on paper and talking through them or in an even more creative way (why not through drama?)

It is recommended that each group shares in their presentation:

• A recap of what the brief was asking for
• The key findings from their research when working as ‘Thinkers’
• Any considerations when organising their time when working as ‘Doers’
• A sentence to summarise their final creative idea
• An explanation of why the target audience would engage with their advert
• Their final creative idea (either the finished output or a draft version)

When pupils share their final presentations, it may be useful to create a time limit (5-10 minutes) for presentations to encourage pupils to keep presentations concise and focused.

Teachers may wish to add a competitive element to presentations by asking a panel of other pupils or teachers to score each group’s presentation on the following criteria (or using another criteria):

1. Presentation style
2. Alignment to the brief
3. Quality of content e.g cool creative idea, interesting research
4. Teamwork
5. Creativity - uniqueness/ outside the box thinking
6. Keeping to time

Slide decks that pupils and teachers wish to share with The Challenger Academy can be emailed to: naomi.baxter@thechallengeracademy.org.uk with the subject heading: “[school name] Primary Skills Presentation”.

The Challenger Academy are committed to celebrating pupils’ hard work and success with the project and are very willing to visit the school for presentations; a celebratory event with Stoke-on-Trent City Council involving key supporters and contributors of the programme is currently underway.

Once the project has been completed, and groups have presented their ideas, it is important to ask pupils to complete the ‘Skills Development Profile’ and ‘Confidence Survey (Post-event)’ so that The Challenger Academy and the Trust can measure impact of the programme.

The results of this survey will remain anonymous and will be discussed with Senior Leadership Team to ensure compliance with GDPR requirements.

As an extension task, pupils may wish to complete the TCA Payslip. This is a great opportunity for pupils to explore elements of a payslip; for example, working out 20% tax, what National Insurance means, and so on. This isn’t essential but is encouraged as part of financial literacy.