Last half-term felt like it stretched out for many weeks, and this could be due to the fact we had a lot of different activities going on!! We ended the term with our Year 9 Enterprise Day. This event is inspired by ‘Dragons Den’ and is great for building creativity, confidence and teamwork skills. Our Careers Link Governor, Kallum Nicholson, is our main advocate for this event as he is very passionate about promoting self-employment and driving business ideas! Kallum launched the event in the morning with a motivational talk, as he spoke about his personal journey into becoming a Business Entrepreneur. Students then worked on their business ideas, with the top 10 winning teams going head-to-head in the final in front of a panel of guest judges. Our Director of Sixth Form, Mr Jarman joined the panel this year and he said ‘’That was great fun! Can I join you again next year?’’ Well done to our winning team ‘Me Time’ who created a mental health support subscription box.  

Another annual event we run each year is our Year 8 Ambition Day. This event has something for everyone as we aim to invite a wide variety of employers and training providers into school to deliver workshops to our students, giving them an insight into their careers and the different opportunities available to them. The student's carousel around the building, meeting our visitors at each stop, these included; Connexin, Yorkshire Archaeology Society, Humberside Police, Hull & East Yorkshire Ambulance Service, Cranswick Foods, HETA, East Riding College, BCD Travel, Camps International and the Duke of Edinburgh, as well as hearing about the various post-16 options available.  

As well as Careers, I also teach Performing Arts, and this year we were excited to see the return of our School Production! Since covid, we have put on an annual summer showcase with a variety of acts from Music, Dance and Drama, but we have held back from a full-scale musical. But this year we were delighted to put on the performance of ‘Oliver!’. This type of extracurricular activity gives students a great insight into what it would be like working for a theatre company, from the audition process to the extensive rehearsals, including dress and technical rehearsals and finally the demands of show week! The students worked incredibly hard and audience members commented on their talent and professionalism; we are very proud of them! Well done to all involved! 

Our Year 10 Careers Week is fast approaching, and plans are well underway. This year the week will run slightly differently to previous years as we see the return of Work Experience – which the students are very excited about! This has been implemented into the week, along with the Aspirational Dinner, which one student quoted last year ‘the cherry on top of the careers week’. This was launched last half-term, and is now fully booked up, so along with our post-16 providers, sector talks and CV workshops, we have a fantastic 7 days planned for our students. Please see the plan below of how this will look: