King James I Academy is the first school in the area to work in partnership with Asda on a recently launched "Skills for Life' programme, which introduces young people to the diverse range of careers in retail.

In the coming months, Year 7 students will be visiting the store with Mrs Barlow, one of our Learning Support Mentors, to work with Asda's Community Life Champion, Ashley Casey and Store Manager, Scott Machonachie. In store, they will take part in a range of educational activities designed to build life skills and offer experience of working in a busy retail environment; these activities will include store and warehouse tours, food tasting, investigating job roles and sessions on customer service, security and how Asda are looking after the environment by being eco-friendly.

"This initiative is a fantastic way for our Year 7 students to develop practical life skills and to increase their knowledge of their environment," said Mrs Barlow. "Learning about food and health related topics has been particularly useful and the group were fascinated by the "behind-the-scenes' tour; it has opened their eyes to the large number of Asda colleagues who all work together to make sure the business runs smoothly. We are extremely lucky to be working with Asda for the next few months; this is a rolling programme, which means that a large number of students will be able to take part."

Here's what our students had to say about the experience:

"Scott, the Store Manager was very nice. He showed us the boardroom where important meetings take place and he gave us some food to take back to school." Liam

"I enjoyed tasting all of the different breads from around the world. Lee, the Head Baker told us how some of them were made and how he gets up at 4am to have fresh bread ready for the customers!" Tammy

"It's amazing to see behind the scenes. I never realized how much work was going on in the store." Connor

"We learned about security in Asda and the CCTV cameras that are always watching!" Annabelle