Dear Parent/Carer,

We are delighted to give your child the opportunity to take part in an exciting project to help them to understand more about themselves and the world around them. Throughout the year, they will take part in activities, trips and projects to help them to build their self-esteem, develop their emotional resilience and develop skills for the future. This project is run by our local Careers Hub, of which we are part of, and funded and evaluated by The Careers & Enterprise Company.

As a part of this project, we are investigating how engaging in career-related activities might make a difference to children’s engagement in education. To do this we will be asking pupils to complete a baseline survey in October 2021 and June 2022. This survey will ask questions on self-esteem and essential skills. Data on student characteristics such as gender/attendance/attainment/SEN status and participation in the project will be shared with the Careers & Enterprise Company to match with survey responses. Each student will be assigned an ID for this purpose, so that students’ names will not be shared with the Careers & Enterprise Company.

Your child will take part in small discussion groups, to tell the organisers and researchers about their experiences of taking part in the project. These sessions will take place in school and will be conducted by your school careers leader with people involved in running the project in attendance.

We are also offering exciting opportunities to see careers in action by visiting venues and talking to people who work there. Students will be travelling by minibus to Alexander Stadium on Tuesday October 5th, the NEC on Tuesday October 12th and Aston Villa Football Club on Tuesday 19th October. Lunch will be provided and students will return to school to be dismissed at the end of the day.

Pupils’ survey responses and any other information collected as a part of the evaluation will be treated with the strictest of confidence. At the end of the project, aggregated data will be analysed and published in a report by The Careers & Enterprise Company. The learnings from the report will be shared to enable other children to benefit from similar programmes. Please note that no individual children will be identified in any reports arising from the evaluation.

The organisers of the project (Birmingham Careers Hub) have requested your permission for your child’s photo to be taken for promotional purposes. Images help to share the impact of their work and to make sure it can carry on making a positive difference to young people, their families, schools & communities. If you DO NOT want your child’s photo to be taken for these purposes please contact me at [email protected]

If you have any questions regarding this letter, please do get in touch.

Yours sincerely,

Charlotte Poynton

Assistant Principal