This is our second year partnering with the National Literacy Trust (NLT), once again becoming business pledge signatories, along with another 110 other businesses, we pledge to take action to close the literacy gap and empower children from disadvantaged communities with the literacy skills they need to succeed in life.

One of the ways we have done this is by supporting the NLT flagship communication and aspirations programme, Words for Work: Dream Big. This academic year the partnership and generous funding gave the NLT the opportunity to deliver the programme to a school in an area of high deprivation in Central Bristol where the percentage of children entitled to free school meals is over double the national average.

The programme funded by Triangle was delivered to 60 primary children at 1 high needs school with 4 volunteers from Triangle. Our funding also enabled NLT to donate 135 high quality books to the school.

Over the 2 year Dream Big partnership, we worked with: 

Dream Big is a career focused communication and aspirations programme, directly linked to the national curriculum. Designed for Key Stage 1 (5-7 year olds), the programme uses high quality resources, classroom activities and employee engagement to help children develop communication skills, broaden aspirations and challenge stereotypes.

Research shows that children from as young as five have ingrained stereotypical views about the jobs people do based on their gender, ethnicity and social background. Most children’s career aspirations are based on family, friends and the media with less than 1% knowing about a job from someone visiting their school, which makes our partnership activity vital.

The Dream Big Workshop and Celebrations 

Volunteers from Triangle visited the school to take part in in two 60 minute volunteer workshops which included:

• A Q&A with our volunteers including information about the company and fire safety. In small groups the children spent time with a volunteer to ask them pre-prepared questions about their jobs.
  
• A book-sharing activity where the volunteers read a careers-related lift the flap book to a small group of children 
• A class celebration where our volunteers presented the pupils certificates to celebrate the children’s learning and facilitated a book gifting.

The key findings following the programme revealed that teachers and volunteers agreed that Dream Big was successful in expanding pupils knowledge of the world of work and challenging stereotypes. They also agreed that the programme was successful in developing pupils’ breadth of oracy skills including speaking confidently.

Feedback from NLT:

“Thank you for your continued support. The Triangle Fire Systems partnership and generous funding gave the National Literacy Trust the opportunity to deliver the Dream Big Programme to even more schools and children in England this academic year. The partnership has contributed greatly to the communities of the primary schools it reached. At a time of unprecedented political, technological, and social change, it is vital that businesses and charities continue to come together to give children the skills they need to flourish and reach their potential.”