Future Ready

In our recent inspection report, we were praised for how we prepare our children for the next stage of their education/training as they leave Meoncross ; the very embodiment of our desire to give them wings to fly. The inspectors said ‘pupils are well prepared for life beyond school’ so imagine our delight in sharing the stories of alumni success in a huge range of careers, most recently in the ever-developing field of AI and its practical applications. Two of our recent graduates, Charlie and Ben, secured 2 million pounds of investment just this month for the development of an AI powered note taking assistant at the age of 19.

The nature of this work of preparing our pupils to thrive in a constantly evolving world is to continuously find ourselves on shifting sands where we must question what we do, why we do it, as well as how.

I have been intrigued recently to read the Future of Jobs Report 2025 where the World Economic Forum makes some bold predictions as to what the job market will look like in 2030; about the time our current Year 11s will be graduating from university.

One trend we must consider seems to be the difference between the higher and lower-income countries; the former with an increasingly aged population and the latter with a growing working age population. Job demand then will match these needs to some extent, driving a rise in demand for teachers and talent management in the lower end of the income spectrum and health jobs where incomes are higher and the population more elderly. Job creation seems to be keeping pace and outstripping job loss, despite many more pessimistic assessments of the nature of AI and its effect on the job market.

So where will these jobs be? No surprise perhaps that technology related roles are the fastest growing from Big Data to roles within energy management within the rise of Green Energy offers.

Perhaps more interestingly, the report focuses on the skills employers wish to see as detailed above and this is where we as a school come to the fore in considering how best to embed these skills, adapting our approach.

Some of the key skill areas mentioned are part of our core values as a school; namely resilience. Others such as active learning and complex problem solving can be found in classrooms across the school. Our commitment to the teaching of coding/programming up to GCSE from a start in EYFS and KS1 as well as our work around digital safety should enable our children to have excellent skills in the arena of technology usage, design and programming.

The ambitious, developing plan for Flexible Fridays will continue to offer a range of opportunities for our pupils to work with others more flexibly, tolerating change and the need to adapt with greater and growing alacrity. This month the theme is future ready, and the idea is that pupils will spend the day thinking about skills that they might need for their future. We have our EdTech lead at Cognita coming down to provide some sessions on AI. Alongside this, there will be sessions on what the future looks l in your subject disciplines or area, or its relevance to the theme of future ready.

The development of these essential skills will remain our North Star here at Meoncross , alongside our constant striving for academic excellence. We want pupils to flex those wings and be completely ready to fly into the world of opportunities ahead of them.

Mrs Ebery, Head Teacher