Emmaus Futures Day: a confident first step into what's next
At Emmaus, we believe every pupil in our care deserves the very best education we can give them, and the best education stretches well beyond the classroom into the kind of confident, hopeful preparation for life that opens doors. More than 315 year 9 pupils, including pupils with SEND and pupils who stand to gain most from extra structured support in shaping their next steps, have just had exactly that, thanks to the first Emmaus Futures Day.
On 20 May, we took over the National Speedway Stadium at Belle Vue to welcome 315 pupils from St Anne’s RC Voluntary Academy, St Antony’s Roman Catholic School, St Matthew’s RC High School and Saint John Henry Newman RC College to meet more than 18 employers, hear from an inspiring keynote speaker and start building their own Unifrog profiles. The day brought together the collective strength of the Emmaus community of schools and the close collaboration of four of its secondary schools, making possible something none of these schools could have offered on their own.
“We have been working on this for the past 5 months, Year 9 is exactly the right moment. Pupils are about to choose their GCSE options and starting to think seriously about work experience in year 10. The more grounded they feel in those decisions, the better the decisions they can make.”
Pupils moved through three elements on a carousel: the marketplace of employers, with household names pupils would recognise from central Manchester sitting alongside thriving local businesses from Trafford, Stockport, Oldham and Manchester; the keynote speech from Dan McNicholas, Notorious Communications; and a working session on Unifrog, the platform pupils will use through GCSEs and beyond to search for, plan and track placements, qualifications and post-16 routes.
We chose the mix of employers with care. Local businesses, because the opportunities on a pupil’s own doorstep matter. National names too, because we want every Emmaus pupil to aim high and to know they belong in those rooms.
“This day puts pupils first, which is exactly where Emmaus puts every decision, It gives them ownership. Of their GCSE options, of their work experience, of what they want and what they don’t. That kind of ownership can really inspire and change things.”
The work continues back in school. Pupils will pick up Unifrog with their careers leads in the weeks ahead, turning the conversations they had at the Futures Day into real work experience placements for year 10. Chief executive Daniel Copley was on site throughout the day, meeting employers and seeing how the pupils responded.
We hope Futures Day will become an annual fixture across the Emmaus community of schools.
“In five years’ time, ten years’ time,” Jack said, “I want businesses across Greater Manchester to know that Emmaus pupils walk through their doors every spring. And I want every pupil, whatever their start in life, to leave Emmaus with the confidence, the connections and the qualifications to build futures that some of them, right now, might not yet believe they can.”
