Lord David Blunkett visits Derbyshire secondary school – to share his inspiring story with pupils

He also spoke about how he overcame many of the challenges of being born blind and students heard about his experiences from his school days at the Sheffield School for the blind.

Lord Blunkett also answered a range of questions from the audience, inlcuding ‘was there a teacher that particularly motivated him to succeed’ to ‘what advice would he give to any future Prime Minister’.

A tour around the Academy, in Alfreton took in the culinary delights of a year 9 hospitality class.

Staff and pupils from Stonebroom Primary School also visited for the day. This group of younger pupils from year 2 to year 6 were keen to show off their achievements from their extra-curricular clubs including knitting, Forest Schools and making ‘Tree Bogarts’ using clay from their local stream.

Lord Blunkett was also treated to the opening scene from the recent school performance of Annie which was followed by a very energetic performance from the school band of Santana’s Smooth.

The tour ended with Lord Blunkett meeting a panel of pupils to discuss the range of lunchtime and afterschool clubs that take place in the school and the showpiece event which was Enterprise Week. During this, a wide range of local and national employers, including Denby Pottery, Derbyshire Constabulary, Owen Taylors, The Royal Engineers, Futures Housing Group, Equip UK, Bowmer and Kirkland, all give up their time to work with staff and students on work-related learning projects.

The visit was part of the school’s programme to develop employability skills through the wider curriculum.

A school spokesperson said: “We have deliberately positioned employability at the centre of our curriculum, that we believe celebrates equally all forms of talent, interests, and aptitudes.

" A focus on a purely academic and theoretical curriculum can mean that some children can disconnect from education, leading to low self-esteem, and a decline in attendance.

"We believe that school leaders must champion work-related learning and creative subjects with the same levels of passion, through curriculum design, to funding, and extracurricular opportunities.”