Year 10 Well-Being Day at Sir Herbert Leon Academy November 2019

Overview

The Year 10 students of Sir Herbert Leon Academy participated in a whole year wellbeing day on 15^th November 2019 with a focus on skills, achievement and communication. With the year 10 students at a stage where they need to be thinking about work experience, it was a good opportunity to introduce them to the concept of transferable skills and how to communicate effectively, whilst also providing information about options available in higher education where these written communication skills would be vital. The day was supported by Oxford Brookes University: Gear Up, Job Centre: CV Workshop, Milton Keynes College: Apprenticeships and ASK Apprenticeships.

Delivery

Students needed to be aware of how to write a CV because they were preparing to apply for work experience.

The presentation from the job centre listed a range of skills and asked students to identify how many of the skills they think apply to themselves. For the activity, students were given a blank piece of paper and asked to list a skill and to then swap the paper with the person next to them, for them to then write a skill they think that original person has.

The Gear Up session provided a great insight into what options are available to students, providing them with information before allowing them the opportunity to research routes for themselves on suggested websites.

Milton Keynes College delivered a workshop about opportunities available in apprenticeships and supported students to research apprenticeships.

ASK Apprenticeships challenged the students with a team-work exercise. Within a set time frame they had to work together to build a stable structure from simple kitchen items.

Evaluation

As part of the evaluation students were asked what inspired them on the day. Here are some of their responses:

 “The Apprenticeships helped me understand the different features of different jobs”

“How there are so many ways to apply and what GCSE Grades you will need, now I will think about it”

“The fact that there were a lot of options that I can choose for my future”

“I was inspired to look online for jobs to see all the options instead of applying for jobs close by”

“The CV Workshop inspired me to start thinking about finding a job”

“What inspired me on Friday is to maybe look into apprenticeships instead of just thinking about sixth form and university”

“That I got to learn more about university and higher education as well as the courses I might like to do”

Students were also asked what they considered to be the benefits of H.E. with the most popular response being that it would enable them to “get a better job.”

When asked what their next steps would be following the outreach activities they took part in, the majority of students stated that they would “explore different apprenticeships options”.

Shamsa Khan