Students from Enterprise South Liverpool Academy in Garston swapped the classroom for the airport this week, as they visited Liverpool John Lennon Airport.
Year 7 students visited the airport to take part in a ‘numeracy trail’ and were treated a special tour around the facilities. 
The visit was designed to boost students’ basic numeracy skills by interacting in real life situations, such as working out baggage allowance and currency exchange.
Liverpool John Lennon Airport (LJLA) launched the Business Class Partnership with ESLA last September to help students be better prepared for future careers and life. The partnership, co-ordinated by the charity Business in the Community, involves a series of initiatives as part of their ‘Business Class’ programme.
Now, 6 months in to the partnership, students are enjoying the hands on approach to learning and are seeing the positive benefits of career days like this.
Year 7 student Mille, aged 12 says: “I really enjoyed the numeracy trail at the airport and the different tasks we had to complete, such as working out how much baggage allowance travellers had left. The tour around the airport was fun too and we all worked together as a team to complete the tasks.”
Headteacher Kevin Unsworth, (pictured right) says: “We are delighted with the partnership with LJLA, it offers a great opportunity for students to get a better understanding of the work place and practice numeracy skills outside of the classroom setting. Not only is it improving student’s numeracy, it is having a positive impact on their confidence and life skills which are essential for work.”
In March, the school had a successful inspection by Ofsted which found the school is making significant progress. The report outlined the school’s plan is ‘fit for purpose’ and how ‘students are making better progress, which is clear when looking at the current data and their work’.
With respect to leadership and management, the Ofsted inspectors stated: ‘The capacity of leadership to drive improvement has been significantly increased’ and that ‘Academy leaders challenge underperformance robustly with the aim to ensure that all students make expected or better progress’.
Kevin Unsworth, says: “We have had our second Ofsted monitoring inspection and the inspectors have recognised that we have made a significant number of positive changes in a short space of time and that these changes are having an impact.
“Whilst we are at the start of a journey to ensure that we have an outstanding school for the young people of our community to attend, we have taken some very important steps on the way. This is a goal that both myself and the entire staff at the Academy are fully committed to achieving.”
