We strongly believe that it is never too early to start thinking about hopes, dreams and aspirations for the future. Having only just joined us last year, and being faced with prolonged periods away from school, we decided to support our Year 7’s in helping
making decisions for their future by arranging a Careers Day. The aim of this day was to help our students explore their dreams and explore which paths they would need to take in order to reach those dreams. With the help of staff, students were able to go online to conduct their own research into their chosen career paths and establish just what skills and expertise they would need to be successful in their chosen field.
This was a great learning experience for our students as they thought about where their own strengths and weaknesses lie. We kick started the day with two aspirational talks from two very different career paths; beauty & football coaching. Both talks were led by our guest speakers and were very successful. Our students demonstrated excellent Mount St Mary’s values showing Respect and Responsibility whilst being fully engaged during the talks. Towards the end, our students had their opportunity to ask their own questions, which they had the chance to prepare a few days prior. The last talk was from University of Leeds with the intent of helping students overcome barriers and discuss ways to get into University. Interestingly, the popular questions related to funding. Our Year 7’s were very impressed with the response they received from our guest speaker, and we are hoping this will encourage them to consider what further options are available to them. It was fantastic to see them working towards their future choices and essentially considering what options are best suited to their talents.
There is still a long journey ahead at Mount St Mary’s for our Year 7’s but if we can get them thinking now, imagine the impact this will have on their decision making skills further on in the school journey!