Aiming High (proactivity)

The skill of aiming high (proactivity) is fundamental to pupils’ development, in education and beyond.  It’s key to start building from an early age as global societal and technological trends will continue to shape the future workplace as pupils move through education.  These changes are brought about by AI, automation and as the world looks to reduce the impacts of climate change. Core transferable skills such as aiming high are becoming increasingly valuable to employers and can transfer across different roles and industries. 

Teach your 7–11-year-old pupils that aiming high is about setting goals and choosing which tasks to do first to help reach them. This means trying your best, staying positive and not giving up, even when things feel tricky. 

The activities in this lesson support pupils in understanding that aiming high means being ambitious, self-motivated, and resilient. These traits not only help with learning at school but also encourage children to dream big and make sense of the world around them, preparing them for the future.  

Teaching Resources

• Aiming High (proactivity): Lesson plan and presentation slides – for use with a group of pupils in a classroom
• Aiming High (proactivity): Pupil worksheet – a worksheet that ask pupils to reflect on the aiming high (proactivity) skills they’ve learned in this lesson
• Primary school: Skills tracker – an optional resource to support pupils keep track of the skills they have developed and plan how they can practise them
• Aiming high icon: available to download and incorporate in your wider teaching materials to help students recognise other contexts where they are learning and utilising aiming high skills. 

Lesson learning outcomes:

By the end of the lesson pupils will be able to:

• Understand what it means to aim high and be proactive
• Explain how aiming high (proactivity) can help through school and in the workplace 
• Discuss how they have shown this skill in their daily lives.

Support pupils’ ongoing progression 

This lesson features in the employability skills scheme of learning for 7–11-year-olds. They provide a ready-made sequence of curriculum linked resources to help you build progression in your learners' knowledge over time. Visit the Scheme of learning homepage to support with your planning.