What we mean by aspirations

We want our young people to develop aspiration for their futures. One cannot have an aspiration for something of which one is unaware; hence, our definition needs to include exposure to all that life could offer our young people – in life and in employment.

Our schools seek to build cultural and social capital in a number of ways, but the collectively recognised way we have of doing this is through our ‘100’ initiative. Each school has worked with its community to think about 100 experiences and opportunities that are contextually relevant and full of shared meaning. Each has committed to offering these as ‘100 things to do before you leave our school’.

Additional to this, our strong Aldridge focus on employability means that we strongly support delivery of the Gatsby benchmarks – i.e. we seek to go beyond the minimum in terms of employer contact, real world learning and exposure to different career routes. It also means that we want to give our young people exposure that could open doors for them in a way that is unique to state-funded schools – as part of our Aldridge Advantage.