It's All Work, Work, Work at SLGGS!
Date posted:Friday 15th July 2011
It’s all work, work, work for students at Simon Langton Girls’ Grammar School in Canterbury this week with more than half the school (500 girls +) taking part in activities that have involved them directly with employers and the world of work.
Year 9 students spent a day engaged in practical activities with employers at the school, Year 10 girls worked on 7 different challenges set by employers in a three-day event called ‘Make it Work’, more than 40 Year 11 students ventured out into the workplace for a week of work experience and Year 12 students participated in the annual two-day ‘Challenge of Management Conference’ held this year at Canterbury Cricket Ground.
Mrs Andrea Shieber, Lifelong Learning Co-ordinator said: “World of Work Day is a chance for Year 9 students to gain an insight into the variety of career opportunities open to them, to challenge stereotypical thinking about jobs and to help girls learn more about the skills and qualities demanded by employers.”
Girls attended 2 of 12 workshops on offer from employers that included Mowll & Mowll Solicitors, Pearson UK, Pfizer Ltd, Kent & Canterbury Hospital, Canterbury Christ Church University, the University of Kent, the University of Greenwich, K College, Hasland Dance Studios, Capon College, the Canterbury Times and the NHS. The workshops featured talks and practical activities about nursing, law, physiotherapy and occupational therapy, sports studies, design, creative marketing, pharmaceutical careers, clinical research, engineering, journalism and dance. In the afternoon girls delivered creative presentations about what they had learned to the rest of the year group.
Mrs Amy Husk, a solicitor from Mowll & Mowll in Dover who ran the ‘law’ workshop said: “In the workshops we conducted a mock trial. The girls had to really think about important legal issues such as a defendant being innocent until proven guilty and why we have trial by jury. They also learnt about what is involved in different roles within the legal profession and the qualifications needed. The workshops clearly inspired the girls to think about a career in law in the future as I had more questions than I could answer!”
Breanna Lynch who took part in the ‘engineering’ and ‘physiotherapy’ workshop said of the day: “It has opened my mind to different careers.”
Meanwhile, more than 160 Year 10 students were set a range of different challenges by employers for ‘Make it Work’, a work-related learning project that was first introduced to the school with the support of EBP Kent last summer.
The University for the Creative Arts (UCA) and NatWest tasked girls with submitting detailed plans for a new business enterprise to be established in a vacant unit in Canterbury, the University of Kent’s South East Physics Network (SEPnet) asked the girls to devise a new physics outreach activity for Key Stage 3 pupils, the NHS Healthy Living Team challenged girls to devise a campaign to raise young peoples’ awareness of obesity, News for Schools had competing groups of students creating new publications for teenagers, East Kent Microbiology Services gave students a clinical case study to diagnose and two of Kent’s magistrates had students recreate a court room and try two different cases involving actual bodily harm and careless driving.
Over the three days, students also took part in employability skills workshops and had the opportunity to be interviewed by visiting employers.
Mrs Katy Yardy, a Nurse from the Healthy Living Team said: “I thoroughly enjoyed the three days. Everyone’s been very enthusiastic, valued my input and asked mature and appropriate questions.”
Student, Ella Baker-Roberts, enjoyed the experience of creating an outreach activity to promote physics to school children: "I thought the event was very interesting in that we were able to try out new skills and explore the different sorts of qualities you need for different jobs. I had a lot of fun working in a team. We got to many interesting experiments where we blew things up which you don’t get to do every day! It was a very educational experience."
Ellie Bergin, Jag Klimowicz, Miranda Lyle and Ashley Gawler wrote an article about their experiences during their journalism challenge: “Overall this has been an incredibly useful experience for all the girls. It has allowed them to experience many professions and see if the subjects they were thinking of continuing were the right ones for them, as well as giving them skills for future jobs. Many also benefitted from attending a real job interview which has taught them to overcome their anxiety and answer openly and confidently. It is definitely an event worth repeating!”
Throughout the week, Year 11 students have been working in Canterbury, Ashford, Margate, Cambridge, London and even France on a week of work experience with organisations including schools, universities, hospitals, dental practices, engineering companies and banks.
In the same week, Year 12 students teamed up with students from Queen Elizabeth’s Grammar School in Faversham to take part in a variety of business challenges and to create virtual ice-cream production enterprises during the annual ‘Challenge of Management Conference’
SLGGS Headteacher, Mrs Jane Robinson was delighted with the outcomes of all the productive activities taking place: "These events form part of a progressive scheme of work-related learning here at SLGGS and we’re very proud of the high quality work our students have all produced throughout this busy week. Employers and facilitators have been very impressed with the level of ability, creativity and maturity shown by our students."
View pictures of 'Make it Work' in our online gallery
View pictures of World of Work Day in our online gallery
