GEM

GEM, or ‘Going the Extra Mile’ as it is also known, is central to life at Bowling Park

GEM is about preparing children for adult life. We raise children’s expectations and ambitions for their future. We raise awareness of the wide range of jobs in our community and region (including apprenticeships) and the benefits of work beyond the financial ones. Our GEM Curriculum gives opportunities for all children to develop leadership and communication skills, self confidence, resilience and discipline. We want our children to become happy and considerate adults, ready to contribute to life in modern Bradford, Britain and the wider world.

Special GEM Days are celebrated three times per year. They provide excellent opportunities for children to explore the working world. From role playing careers in EYFS to visiting real life work places in Year 6, our GEM. Days help children to see the many career options available to them, and to learn about what routes they need to take in order to get there.

In recent G.E.M. Days, children have taken part in special eco warrior projects, come to school dressed as their job ambition, collected donations for the Food Bank and lots more. Year 6 have been lucky enough to visit some of Bradford’s finest business and organisations, for example Dominion Print Works, Bradford City Football Club, Kemira Chemical Plant, Powells Electrical, The National Science and Media Museum and lots more. During the visits the children get to see a true ‘behind the scenes’ look at what life is like with a successful career, they meet people from all different industries and even get to have a go at the jobs themselves!

Children in Key Stage 2 are given the opportunity to visit a local University; Bradford University and Leeds University. This is a great insight into further education.

Our G.E.M. Passport to Success programme focuses on the qualities and traits that we want our children to grow up with; leadership, ambition, communication, creativity, resilience and more. To do this, we provide a mix of high quality extra-curricular projects, residential visits, projects for parents and achievement events will be underpinned by the GEM mentor scheme for children in years four, five and six.