EiA works with Years 6 and 7 in Whitley Excellence Cluster

The programme was based in schools in the Whitley Excellence Cluster, in the bottom 20% of the most deprived areas in the UK. It addressed issues of poverty, low self-esteem and low aspirations among young people in the area.

Through a series of challenges in which local businesses were involved, students from Reading Girls School, the John Madejski Academy and local primary schools came to realise that opportunities of employment and career advancement do, in fact, exist for them in the local community. 

Microsoft, a large local employer, set a business challenge about helping the company’s partners understand the cutting edge use of the internet by younger web users, and other groups helped the police and fire services tackle seemingly intractable social problems such as graffiti and ‘mini-moto’ joy riding. One group was featured on BBC South.

But, there was an additional twist: this project introduced social responsibility and enterprise to primary schools in an innovative approach to engage them in finding solutions to real community challenges set by key stakeholders like the Police, Fire and Health Services, Sports Development Reading and Groundwork.

The local MP Martin Salter, MP for Reading West has also agreed to set a challenge for these students. This part of programme is aimed at giving pupils in Year 6 at primary school, a voice in solving and influencing some of the big issues facing their community.

The students found it fun to work as young businessmen & women and really think through the challenges that they could face as young entrepreneurs. Older pupils in the secondary schools also supported their younger colleagues through the process, and the project looked to develop stronger links between the primary and secondary schools as the children were about to progress to secondary school.