Projects like Primary Futures are essential for firing children's post-pandemic aspirations, says NAHT

Paul Whiteman, general secretary of school leaders' union NAHT, commented:

“Now is the time for us to ignite our children’s aspirations. We need to help them see what’s possible and the opportunities open to them. Primary Futures does that and NAHT has been a proud supporter from the start. It is truly incredible how much impact this scheme has had.

“Now is a perfect time to make it more widely available to pupils right across the country. School leaders will welcome the opportunity to tap into a programme like this if it can be expanded to a national scale.

“Primary Futures is a perfect solution to the problem of raising post-pandemic aspirations. This new report shows that the scheme has worked everywhere it has been deployed. We now need to see it deliver on a national scale.”

The impact of Primary Futures is shown in the 'Starting Early' report from the Education and Employers Charity.

After taking part in Primary Futures activities, 88% of children agreed that doing well at school would help them in the future and 82% understood how maths, science and English could be useful in many jobs.

Following inspiring sessions with people from the world of work, 84% of children understood that boys and girls can do the same job and 80% agreed that ‘people like them’ can be successful when they grow up.