Sally Saunders, Assistant Head: Careers, launched Careers Week at Leighton Park with a whole-school Collect in Main Hall to coincide with the UK’s national careers week from Monday 2nd to Friday 6th March. All students enjoyed an insight into the past careers of many well-known members of staff before Sally shared her top tips for becoming a competitive candidate for the jobs of the future.
Sally explained: “National Careers Week is an important week which encourages students to start thinking about what they want to do beyond school. There are so many exciting opportunities and directions students can take and it is never too early to start exploring these. National Careers Week always falls the week of International Women’s Day and the theme of ‘Own Your Future’ fits in well with concept of challenging stereotypes.”
Over the week students were exposed to a variety of adults sharing their career journeys, with a bias towards female success stories, in line with the school’s celebrations towards International Women’s Day. There were female speakers from the cast and crew of Hercules the Musical, currently playing in London’s West End; author Lisa Williamson, who was also on the Park for a World Book Day event; Old Leightonian and former Head Girl, Kimia Gilani, spoke candidly about the opportunities and challenges she has encountered at university and led an interactive workshop about women in leadership roles; and two Year 10 girls were fortunate to interview actors from the Pixar and Disney film, ‘Hoppers’.
Thursday’s PSHE lesson was dedicated to a multiple-choice quiz about staff careers and students were directed to an online resource to research careers that had piqued their interest. Careers at Leighton Park is supported though regular PSHE sessions in the younger years and interactive experiences such as the 10x Challenge, an entrepreneurial competition to make money from an initial investment of just £10. A range of external speakers offer insights into a variety of careers and our next careers fair on 19th March will bring together students with a selection of universities. Sally continued: “Whilst it is great to have a focused week for careers, at Leighton Park we have an ongoing programme to support students with their next steps. Oon 19th March we will be hosting a range of top international and UK universities and following the fair, the Aspiring High group and other students who are interested will be attending breakout sessions on key courses and issues such as Oxbridge, Medicine, Law, applying to a top university.”
You can see more photos from Careers Week in our online gallery.
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