Photography by Nick Strugnell
School of Dreams is at the very heart of Honda’s ‘Impossible Dream’ philosophy. The company’s founder, Soichiro Honda, had a dream – he wanted to fly.
Honda believes in dreams and in making the impossible possible. School of Dreams inspires school children all over the country to pursue their dreams, giving them the skills and strategies to help turn these into reality. The programme encourages students and educators to discover different, creative and fun ways to learn.
School of Dreams gives back to the communities where Honda operates
The brainchild of Honda (UK) and a team of independent education experts, it is also about giving back to the local communities in which it operates. So far, more than 180 schools across the UK have become involved with School of Dreams, directly engaging around 8,500 students and educators, including Karen Green.
Getting involved
Karen’s role is to link businesses to schools and schools to businesses. Her mission at Westgate School in Slough, Berkshire, is to give students as young as 11 real-life industry knowledge and experience. So when she heard about Honda’s School of Dreams at a business forum, she immediately contacted the organisers to get involved. ‘I was thrilled,’ she recalls of hearing that the company had agreed to work with her school.
Over two days, pupils experience all 10 learning strategies
School of Dreams has been carefully mapped against the National Curriculum’s Personal Learning and Thinking Skills framework. Over the course of two days, pupils experience all 10 of the learning strategies identified in the Leading in Learning education initiative. All material from Honda is directly relevant to teaching objectives.
For Westgate School, Honda decided to carry out the workshop at its headquarters
in Slough. This gives the 11- to 12-year-old students direct exposure to the business and industry world. These workshops are challenging but great fun, with teachers and pupils working at the same level in small groups. Students are encouraged to become ‘sharers’ and ‘doers’, by both taking what they have learned and cascading it to others, and by organising team projects with the aim of improving their local communities.
In some cases local representatives of Honda have become mentors, helping teams of students to turn their legacy projects into reality. To date, it is estimated that more than 35,000 students and educators have benefitted from the cascade programme.
Back in Slough, 36 students new to the school attended. They were put into groups and were given real-life tasks in order to better understand industry and business. It was therefore also a great way for the students and teachers to get to know one another on an entirely different level.
‘The aim of the programme was to prepare us for the world out there, to be able to work within a team that we didn’t know,’ explains student Oliver, who is visibly excited about his School of Dreams experience. ‘And it helped us find out what we wanted to do with our lives. Like a realistic dream,’ he adds. Karen says: ‘It encourages students to go out to the real world of work. We start at this young age and carry through to 19, when the students are in sixth form. To add Honda to this process was simply priceless,’ she enthuses, adding: ‘Most students will now say they want to work for Honda!’
Of his own dream, Oliver talks of building an animal park – not for the kind of wild creatures you’d expect in a safari park or zoo, but for foxes and hedgehogs: ‘These
are the animals that live around us but get ignored,’ he explains. For him, the highlight of School of Dreams was a workshop on the development of Honda’s humanoid robot. ‘ASIMO shows how it’s possible for dreams to come true,’ he smiles.
