Canford Futures Academy 2024

On Monday 10^th June, Canford School welcomed 250 Year 5 children and their teaching staff from seven different preparatory schools for its inaugural Canford Futures Academy event. The aim of the day was to develop skills across four core categories defined by Global Management Consultancy McKinsey as necessary to thrive in tomorrow’s dynamic workplace – Cognitive, Inter-personal, Self-leadership and Digital. Research by McKinsey has explored the kind of jobs that will be lost, as well as those that will be created, as automation, AI, and robotics take hold. It suggests that the need for manual and physical skills, as well as basic cognitive ones, will decline, but demand for technological, social and emotional, and higher cognitive skills will grow.

Throughout the day children took part in activities covering areas of CCF and sports leadership, academic workshops, wellbeing and mindfulness and team building, problem solving and perseverance skills. Each child took home a booklet with suggested activities to further develop their skills along with a section to reflect and identify skills learnt from their Canford Futures Academy experience.

Headmaster Ben Vessey commented:

I am delighted that our first Futures Academy was so well received.  Tomorrow’s workforce will need to be resilient and agile as new occupations emerge and the core areas identified by McKinsey as necessary for success in the workplace formed the basis of this learning day.  At Canford we are committed to preparing pupils for their future lives, and our new Sixth Form development opening in Spring 2025 will include a Future Pathways Centre offering careers and higher education support as well as the opportunity to learn practical skills.

Details on Canford's new Sixth Form College development can be found here:

Canford Sixth Form

Feedback on the event has been very encouraging, with one school commenting:

"Working with other schools was absolutely fantastic for the children and I was really impressed with how your staff helped group them together. Thank you so much for organising the children really enjoyed the day and benefitted from it."

As part of the Futures Academy event an afternoon discussion forum for parents was held focused on the future of the world of work.  This was led by international wellbeing expert Natasha Devon, AI guru Darren Coxon and Old Canfordians, Tim Porter and Kate Rayner, chaired by the Headmaster. Information about the speakers can be found here: 

Canford Futures Academy Speakers

The discussion forum was recorded and can be viewed here:

One parent that attended the Discussion Forum said:

I found the format engaging and incredibly informative and inspiring on so many fronts. All speakers were really interesting and had a lot of good advice. I found the topic discussion questions presented incredibly useful and thought provoking.

Thank you to all the pupils, staff and families who supported our first Futures Academy and we look forward to building on the concept as we continue to help pupils be as prepared as they can be for their lives post school, equipped with the skills to navigate the changing nature of the world of work.