Last June, I stood in a corridor that had been transformed into a spaceship, dry ice swirling around my feet. A tonne of ‘Martian’ soil had landed on our playground, and Professor Brian Cox flickered onto our screens to launch our ‘Mission to Mars’.
My former primary school, E-ACT Blakely in North Manchester became NASA headquarters for the very first Dream Big Day. The memories of the children’ faces, wide-eyed, buzzing with ideas and excitement still make me smile.
We hit 100 per cent attendance that day, a first in my time as headteacher. A girl in Year 4 told me she wanted to build robots; a boy in Year 6 asked if we should save Earth before colonising Mars.
That’s what careers education can do when it’s not just a box-ticking exercise.
Today, as E-ACT’s education director, I support 24 primary schools across the country. Much about that day drives the work I do.
Too many children stumble into secondary school blind to what’s out there. Youth Employment UK’s 2024 youth voice census found that over one-third (36.8 per cent) of 14- to 15-year-olds feel unsure about their career paths, lost before they’ve even picked their GCSEs.
Dream Big Day isn’t a cure-all, but it’s a fantastic start. It’s about showing primary children that the world’s bigger than their street, that they can be anything.
Our Mission to Mars Day was bold and ambitious. Every year group had a job: Reception built mini-rovers, Year 6 built robots, Year 5 tested soil samples, Year 3 debated ethics in PSHE – should we leave Earth at all?
The University of Sunderland brought real Mars rovers; local secondary teachers from Oldham Academy North ran science workshops. A planetarium swallowed whole classes, showing them the cosmos. Even the maths lessons tied into Mars orbits.
We didn’t play dress-up; we showed our children that STEM careers (engineers, scientists, coders and more) aren’t pipe dreams but real jobs they could pursue.
It’s about showing primary children that the world’s bigger than their street
The stats back up why this matters. The ONS reported in February 2025 that 13.4 per cent of 16- to 24-year-olds (987,000 young people) were not in education, employment, or training (NEET) in October-December 2024, up 1.3 points from the year before. That’s nearly a million futures at risk.
Dig deeper, and the DfE’s 2023 data shows only about 10 per cent of primaries offer structured careers education. That means 90 per cent leave it to chance or secondary schools already drowning in targets.
A friend of mine became an airline pilot because a careers talk hooked him at 14 years of age. How many children miss that moment because we wait too long?
Imagine if Dream Big Day had been running for a decade.
A child starts in nursery, gets eight Dream Big Days by Year 6 – eight days to try construction, media, biology, whatever lights them up.
The ‘Windows and Mirrors’ curriculum we designed at E-ACT Blakely was the foundation of this vision: windows to ‘see’ opportunities, mirrors to know yourself. Dream Big Day turbocharges this.
Next Friday, my 24 E-ACT schools will all be dreaming big. One’s linking with the BBC for a media theme (green screens and special effects). Another’s got an explorer who’s trekked the North Pole for a careers in conservation project.
No costumes, just curiosity and a bit of graft.
It was a discussion with one of our academy ambassadors, Colin Bell from CareerMap that started the idea. He is relentless: he hounded Brian Cox’s PA, encouraged local universities to pitch in, and it worked!
But it’s not enough for one trust to do it.
Secondary schools are squeezed. Arts have been slashed. Apprenticeships continue to be misjudged.
Primaries have to step up.
So if you’re a head or a teacher, join us on June 27 for Dream Big Day. It’s free, and It’s not about one glitzy day. It’s about planting seeds that grow into resilience, ambition and successful futures.
E-ACT Blakely Academy’s personal development offer is deemed ‘outstanding’ precisely because of our relentless mission to build character and aspiration.
Dream Big Day alone can’t do that for your school, but it can be the catalyst that launches you towards the stars.
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