A couple of weeks ago, Bloxham’s Lower Sixth students took part in a Future Focus event to begin planning for their futures on leaving Bloxham
Thank you to Annabel for her report of the first day of activities at the recent Lower Sixth Future Focus event:
On Thursday 16th June, Bloxham School’s Lower Sixth students began a three-day ‘Future Focus’ course, which started with a talk from Emma Goodman, who discussed how to set out a quality CV and present ourselves in job interviews, including preparing for interviews, dress code, body language and other NVCs (non-verbal communications). After a short break, we had a second talk from Shaun Jardine (CEO of Brethertons Solicitors in Banbury), who spoke on what companies such as his look for in interview candidates. He also made us aware of how our actions on social media could potentially affect our future careers – a couple of us particularly learned our lesson when he revealed some of our social media accounts in front of the whole year!
The afternoon’s talks were led by ex-Thames Valley Police officers Andy Wells and Pete Humphries and covered independent travel safety when abroad. These scenario workshops opened our eyes to the potential dangers whilst travelling and taught us how to deal with situations such as road accidents, theft and natural disasters, amongst others.
In the evening, there were further talks from Fran Wyld, founder of The Wyld Cookery School in London, who told us a little about the courses they offer, which are fantastic for work experience opportunities and to gain additional qualifications for your CV. Following Fran was Matt Latimer with his talk, ‘Should I take a gap year?’. This gave us plenty to think about regarding the benefits of taking a gap year and the opportunities that could arise out of one. The day was brought to a close with a last talk from a member of the organisation ‘Ski Le Gap’. This company was advertising its Canada-based ski seasons for gap year students – this caught the attention of members of our year group, many of whom regularly go skiing and may not have considered the possibility of a ski season before.
The day was hugely beneficial as it made everyone start to think more carefully about the fast-approaching life after school, and making the prospect of it a lot less daunting.