Free school resources for industry professionals and teachers!

Funded by the CITB and delivered in partnership with London Regional Construction Training Group, the Contextualised Curriculum project aims to facilitate wider industry engagement in secondary schools (11-18 year olds), raising the profile and desirability of careers in construction and the built environment. 

Construction Youth Trust have developed and piloted a suite of online resources that can be used by industry professionals and teachers to deliver engaging sessions in schools that contextualise students’ learning in real life scenarios.

With a wide-ranging selection of sessions, the Contextualised Curriculum project offers students a range of meaningful encounters with employers that broaden their career horizons, challenge stereotypes, champion STEM careers and support young people to achieve their career ambitions. The employer led engagements also help schools to meet the mandatory Gatsby benchmarks.

Below you can find the entire suite of available Contextualised Curriculum sessions. All the sessions are free and you can download and use as many as you wish! Download an overview of all sessions here.

For each session there is a detailed resource pack including:

  • A session plan— a step by step guide for the delivery of the session
  • Student worksheets—printable versions of worksheets specific to each session
  • Resources— including session PowerPoint, additional information sheets and activities

We have also provided a handy How To Guide to help you make the most of the Contextualised Curriculum resources and support you in running engaging sessions in your local schools.

If you’re located in London or North Kent, why not come and volunteer with us before delivering your own sessions?

You will be able to observe our experienced delivery team and witness the sessions in full flow. We deliver all of the Contextualised Curriculum sessions ourselves and our delivery team would be happy to answer any questions you may have about the specifics of a session or delivering in schools.

If you have questions about any of the Contextualised Curriculum sessions or would like to join us as a volunteer, please do get in touch with Construction Youth Trust at hello@constructionyouth.org.uk

Whole School Sessions

Overview of construction and the built environment 

This session begins with an Overview of Construction presentation which discusses where the industry is going in terms of technological innovation and sustainability, as well as available careers. The main focus of this session is an interactive activity involving the Go Construct career personality quiz.  

15 minute assembly (no session plan needed)

Work Experience

Work experience is invaluable to any young person looking to start a career in construction and the built environment. At Construction Youth Trust we typically facilitate placements that are 5 days in length.

KS3: Year 7—9 (11—15 years )

Maths Measuring in 3D

This session can either be delivered as a single or double lesson. It focuses on a practical classroom-measuring activity, facilitated by an industry professional. The aim is to get students thinking about how their maths learning can and will be relevant to future career options. The career in focus is that of Quantity Surveying, and the activity incorporates common maths that a Quantity Surveyor uses while at work—most commonly to do with calculating areas and assessing the cost of a project.

Maths Pythagoras’ Theorem

A practical introduction to Pythagoras’ Theorem via a ‘setting-out’ task that encourages students to think about 3-4-5 triangles and physically see the principle in action. Industry volunteers, usually Project Managers or others with site experience, will explain the importance of right angles to construction and talk about how maths relates to their everyday jobs.

Maths Quantity Surveyor— A Day In The Office

This session sees students take measurements from a 2D floor plan of a new school wing. Students work out the surface areas of the classroom walls and calculate how much the rooms will cost to paint according to a defined budget.

Double Session

Single Session

Science Tunnel Tactics

This session, based on tunnels and forces, brings  together science and maths. Students will learn about the Tideway Tunnel, related STEM careers and will be asked to design, cost and build their own tunnels in groups using selected materials.

Science Sustainable Design Challenge

This session gets students thinking about how modern building standards incorporate sustainability at every stage of the process. In groups, students make design choices for elements of a build project, taking into account the cost, time taken to build, and carbon impact of each option. A winning team will be crowned based on who best satisfies all three of these criteria.

Please note that the following careers sessions could be adapted for KS3:

  • Speed Networking
  • Hidden Careers

KS4&5: Year 10—13 (15—18 years )

Apprenticeships Briefing 

This session aims to demystify what apprenticeships are and how they work, as well as explain how to find and apply for apprenticeship opportunities. Using the Built Environment sector as an example, this session will demonstrate the variety of careers that are available for prospective apprentices, as well as the benefits and things to consider for young people considering this route. The session includes an interactive activity in which students get to grips with the government's ‘Find an Apprenticeship’ website.

CV Skills

The goal of this session is to help students to get to grips with the essential content of a CV. Students will spend time reviewing example CVs, looking for common errors, and highlighting the strengths. They will then think about their own skills and how to emphasise them effectively, and be given support to begin crafting their own personal statement.

The STAR Technique

The aim of this session is for students to get comfortable with talking about their strengths by using the STAR technique – Situation, Task, Action, Result – which will help them structure answers to interview questions as well as responses on job application forms. In this session, students work through examples of the technique in use before using it to create responses of their own.

How To Get Hired

This session centres around a board game called ‘Interview Ladders’, in which students compete to get hired by answering sample interview questions and talking about related soft skills. Along the way, students learn about jobs-related terminology such as “workplace culture” and “CPD”.

Maths Property Development

In this session, the students will step into the shoes of a property developer, planning and costing a housing development project. They will do this by carrying out calculations based on a simple development appraisal process. The aim is for students to learn how construction companies begin to plan major projects and make early cost estimates, as well as predict the amount of profit that a project may bring.

Maths Tree Project

This session aims to get students thinking about how their maths learning around circles can relate to their future careers. This will be done by exploring site plans and the considerations that construction companies make surrounding trees. Students will be presented with a site template and some rules, which they will use to create loci and constructions, sketching out the site’s usable area. They will also learn about the very important role that trees often have within building projects.

Maths Be A Business Owner

The aim of this session is for students to learn about what it means to be self-employed, and how business owners keep on top of their finances and out of trouble with the taxman. The main activity sees students sift through a mock business’ financial documents, including receipts, invoices and bank statements, to work out how much money it has made during the course of a financial year.

Speed Networking

For this session, students will have the chance to talk to  a range of industry volunteers representing a range of STEM-related careers. In groups, students will move from table to table, interviewing the professionals to listen to advice about what it takes to get into a STEM career. Students will also be able to quiz the volunteers about what it’s like to do their job, and what they like best about working in the Built Environment. Prompt questions will be provided.

Hidden Careers

Students attempt to guess the careers of 5 industry professionals who work in a variety of different Built Environment careers that they may not know much about. Students will do so by interviewing each professional in groups, asking yes-or-no questions (suggestions provided) to glean as much useful information as they can in 5 minutes. Afterwards, each volunteer will reveal whether the students guessed correctly, and talk about their careers and their educational pathways.

Who Wants That Job?

This session aims to get students thinking about the construction industry as part of the local and national labour market. Students take part in a careers investigation activity, and report back to the group about the different roles available within the industry, as well as trends related to them.

Home or Away?

This session gets students to role play as a young person who is considering moving away from their hometown to start a career within the construction and built environment sector. Students will compare different areas in the UK based on the types of careers that are trending upwards, and suggest where the young person could move to in order to have a good chance of finding work.

Science Sources of Electricity

The session aims to get students thinking about how their classroom learning on the National Grid and electrical power relates to careers within the construction and built environment sector. The main focus of the session is a group project in which students have to work out how much electricity is needed to power more and more homes as they are built, as well as discuss how this demand can be met.

Architecture Design Challenge

This session sees students get introduced to the basics of architecture, and make their own plans for a build project. Focusing on the design of a new school, students will sketch out drawings using pencil and paper before bringing their plans to life using the CAD software SketchUp. Students will also consider interior design choices of their new school, and pitch their ideas to their peers at the end of the session.

A How To Guide to Contextualised Curriculum 

Contextualised Curriculum Session Brochure