CHILDREN from a Basingstoke primary school enjoyed learning about different careers at a special enrichment event.

St John’s Primary School, in Kingsmill Road, Cranbourne, held a careers fayre where members of the school community came along to talk to the children about different careers.

Across the school, the children were learning about the different careers they might do when they are older, before attending a mini careers fayre in the hall with representatives from different industries.

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Those attending included Hampshire Constabulary, Hampshire Fire and Rescue Service, Solent Therapy (NHS), Red Kit Carpentry Ltd, Hampshire Vets, The LEGO Group, AECOM, NHS physiotherapists, Enterprise Rent a Car, archaeologists, and the Basingstoke Gazette.

The children were invited to take part in engaging activities at each of the stands, including matching X-Ray photos to the correct animal, building LEGO models, digging in sand for archaological finds, and even being locked inside a police van.

The aim of the event was to encourage the children to consider their own aspirations and what they might need to do to reach this goal, as well as the skills they need to develop.

After the event, children in years five and six were tasked with writing their own review of the event for the chance for it to be published in The Gazette.

Gazette journalists selected a write-up by year five pupil Felicity Alderman to be published in the paper and online below after she showed real potential in her journalistic skills.

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Miles Hudson, a year five pupil, said in his write-up: “I think the careers fayre is important because it is important to make sure children know what they want to be when they grow up.”

Year six pupil Millie Baldwin said: “This was an amazing opportunity and it has inspired me to think about more careers that I haven’t considered before. I was elated to be amongst many different jobs.”

Harry Houston, also a year six pupil, said the event gave him the opportunity to “contemplate various and perhaps non-traditional jobs”.

He added: “I think that the fayre overall has been very educational and exciting. I have been informed of new jobs and now can start to think about my career path.”

Angela Wynn, key stage one phase leader at St John’s, who organised the event, said: “The children very much enjoyed the event and we hope this has helped to inspire them into thinking about possible future careers.”

Review: St John’s School Careers Fayre

By Felicity Alderman

On Friday, July 14, our school held an amazing, eye-opening careers fayre, which all the children enjoyed.

The fantastic opportunity included a wide range of jobs for the children to explore.

These included a car rental company, the NHS, archaeology, the fire brigade, the police, and many more.

Whilst walking round the fayre I found each and every job interesting but the one I found the most interesting was The Basingstoke Gazette.

I found it really interesting because I had no idea that they use a thing called shorthand, which is if they are taking a quote from someone it would be really hard to write normal letters, so they use shorthand which is basically a quicker alphabet.

I also learned that you have to be inquisitive to be a newspaper writer because you need to write lots of information for the newspaper.

So, they had a box full of questions that we could pick one and answer.

Overall, all the careers looked really fun and I would love to do any of them.