No fixed date — run it any week · 8 to 14 minutes · pairs with the free 12-skill classroom pack
Pick one. It changes the words on every slide, and which slides you get.
The big words on screen are for the hall. The strip along the bottom is your script — it is small on purpose, so the children read the message, not your lines. Press N to hide it if you have a second screen or don't need it.
Agree one before you start. "Hands up if you can hear me" — raise your own hand silently and say nothing. Works in any hall.
Reception at the front with their TA. Slide 7 puts a monthly cost of living on the screen — for a child whose family is behind on the rent that is not a neutral number, so pitch it as maths, not as worry, and move on briskly. Slide 6 asks about meat grown in a laboratory — some families will have views, so keep it as a question, not a verdict.
Slide 8 — the four skills, and it comes in two versions. EYFS/KS1: four actions, everybody copying you — do them yourself, big and unembarrassed. KS2: one volunteer invents the actions and the hall votes with thumbs. Run the one for your hall. That is the moment the assembly lands.
Press → when the school is settled. The next slide is what they see.
Not you. Not the grown-ups either.
"Stand up if you think you already know what job you want when you're grown up. (pause — let them look around) Look how many of you. Sit down."
Any child who cannot stand, or would rather not, puts a hand up instead — that counts exactly the same. Say so before you ask.
"Here is the honest answer. Nobody in this hall knows for certain. That is not a problem. That is the interesting bit."
"Some of the jobs you'll do might not be invented yet. Somebody has to invent them. One day that could be one of you."
"when your parents were at primary school, nobody had heard of an app developer, a YouTuber or a wind-farm engineer. By the time you finish your education in the 2040s, the same will be true again."
"Hands up if you have ever met someone who does one of the 1965 jobs. (pause) Hands down. All three were completely ordinary."
"Now look at 2026. Not one of those existed in 1965 either."
"So what's ordinary in 2040? Three we're about to meet — on the Moon, in the ocean, in a laboratory."
"The World Economic Forum expects 39% of the skills a job needs to have changed by 2030. That is four years away."
"Thumbs up if you think somebody from this school could work on the Moon one day. Thumbs down if you think that's nonsense. (pause) Keep them there. Now look at the screen."
"There is frozen water hidden in the dust on the Moon. Water means people can stay. Somebody has to go and find it."
"there is frozen water at both of the Moon's poles. NASA's radar found at least 600 million tonnes at the north pole alone. The Artemis programme plans the first long-stay base in the 2030s, near the south pole — where there is ice too. Some of that work happens standing on the Moon. Some of it happens from a desk on Earth, driving robots 384,000 kilometres away."
"Coral reefs cover less than one hundredth of the sea floor. How much of all the life in the ocean lives on them? Hands up for each one in turn. (count the room by eye — don't tally. Then press → to reveal.)"
"A quarter of everything that lives in the sea. And half of the world's coral has already gone. Somebody has to grow it back. That could be one of you."
"half the world's coral reefs have been lost since 1950. Rebuilding them is already a job and by 2040 it is a huge one — lab-grown coral, 3D-printed reef structures, drones planting the seabed."
"Turn to the person next to you. Say one word — would you eat a chicken nugget that was grown in a laboratory, from a few cells, with no farm and no animal? (ten seconds, then bring them back)"
"It is already real. The first ones went on sale in a country called Singapore. Somebody had to invent them. Somebody still has to make them taste good."
"the first lab-grown burger was made in 2013 and it cost two hundred and fifty thousand pounds. The first nuggets went on sale in Singapore in 2020. The job by 2040 is making it cheap enough and tasty enough for everybody."
"You're grown up. Your own flat. Rent, food, getting around, your phone, and the things you enjoy. Hands up — what does all of that cost in one month? (take the vote by eye. Don't tally. Then press → to reveal.)"
"£2,580 a month is about £31,000 a year — and that is after tax, so you would need to earn around £40,000. Today the same list costs about £1,730 a month. Prices rise by two or three per cent a year, which is why the 2040 number is half as much again."
Say this bit out loud — it matters: these are averages for one person renting alone. Rent in London is far more than in the north-east, and sharing a flat, or living with family, changes the number completely. It is a rough guide, not a prediction about anybody in this hall.
"A scientist on the Moon. A reef restorer under the sea. A food engineer in a laboratory. Different worlds — the same four skills."
This beat comes in two versions. Run the one for the hall you have, not both.
"Everybody copy me. Problem solving. (tap your head) Teamwork. (hands together) Speaking up. (one hand in the air) Planning ahead. (point forwards) Again — faster."
"nobody copies anybody. One volunteer — stand up here. I say a skill, you invent the action on the spot, and the hall judges it: thumbs up if it fits, thumbs down if it doesn't. (four skills, four thumbs votes — twenty seconds, no longer) Now everybody, turn to the person next to you and name the one you have used today. Ten seconds. Go."
All four work sitting down. Any child who cannot do an action can watch, judge or do their own version — that counts exactly the same.
"You are learning all four already. Every single day, in here."
"you don't pick these up the week before a job interview. You build them here — in class, on the playground, in clubs."
Press → to reveal. Then ask the next two aloud — no slide needed:
"Name one of the four skills." (problem solving, teamwork, speaking up, planning ahead) · "Name a job somebody could do on the Moon." (scientist, engineer, builder, robot driver — accept anything sensible)
"Name one of the four skills." (problem solving, teamwork, speaking up, planning ahead) · "Name a job that exists today but didn't when your grandparents were at school." (app developer, wind-farm engineer, social media manager, YouTuber)
"Close your eyes. Think of one hard thing you're going to try this week. Not an easy thing — a hard thing. Don't say it out loud. Just hold it. (three seconds) Open your eyes."
"Nobody knows which job is yours. What you can build is the person who is ready for it. Curious. Brave. Kind. Good with people. Good at trying."
"Tonight — tell one grown-up the hard thing you picked. Just the one. That's the homework."