With National Careers Week this month, this is an opportune moment to showcase the varied Careers Calendar to which students in the Prep School at Thornton College have access.
Early encounters with careers-related learning can help counteract unconscious bias and the forming of stereotypes. Jo Scott, Careers Leader at the school, said:
“We are so proud of our student careers provision here at Thornton, and are keen to make sure that all our pupils, even the very youngest, have the opportunity to set goals and build motivation for their academic work.”
This year’s events for students, from Reception to Year 6, have included a fantastic Careers in Literature Event, with workshops from authors Bex Hogan and Lizzie Waterworth. It was a day of creativity and fun and allowed all those who attended to see where a love of literature and writing could take them.
Early in February, as a prelude to Thornton’s main Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) Careers Event, Volkswagen put on a fantastic workshop for Year 5 and 6 students in the school’s Assembly Hall. The VW team talked about the processes involved in getting a car on to a garage forecourt, from sourcing components to fuel type, choosing a combustion engine or electric (or a combination of the two), pricing and marketing the finished vehicle to the target market.
The girls really engaged and asked some tremendous questions, including ‘Why are electric cars more expensive?’ ‘How much does it cost to refuel a car?’ ‘How fast can cars go?’ and many more, with one of the girls particularly keen to know about safety features and their ongoing development.
The pupils were then tasked with designing a car, in groups, for a specific type of customer, giving thought to style, features, marketing, pricing and so on, before ‘pitching’ their cars to everyone else (not least the VW team, who were very impressed). Jo said:
“Events like this allow our students to see the connection between creativity and STEM careers. It helps foster skills like critical thinking and problem solving. The girls were extremely innovative and did a great job of understanding the task and developing their designs.”
The icing on the cake for the students was a chance to explore two state-of-the-art VW cars which were on the school playground. During National Careers Week, each class in the Prep School from Early Years to Year 6 will have different presentations, with speakers ranging from Arts Consultant and Space Venture Capitalist to Royal Navy Officer and Professional Juggler. The small group sizes will enable talks to be interactive and students will be able to engage and ask questions.
Thornton College has also built strong links with BP, and also in National Careers Week, there will be a Girls in Data Workshop for students in Years 5 and 6. The purpose of Girls in Data is to connect young women with positive role models and help them explore career opportunities in the world of data and technology. Year 6 students spent time with BP at Thornton’s highly successful STEM Event at the beginning of February and are looking forward to learning more about scratch coding.
All Prep School students will be taking part in a careers event run by the Police in March. They will be able to hear about the different job roles and pathways in, including the apprenticeship route.
Regarding the final event of the school year, in May, Jo said:
“Many of our students take part in the Bedford Health and Care Academy. We are delighted that they are going to host a workshop for our Prep School students. This will be followed by an NHS Careers Information event where a number of NHS teams will talk to pupils about their jobs, including radiography, nursing, pharmacy and medicine”.
There are very few schools who offer such an extensive careers provision for pupils under the age of 11. If any business or organisation would like to engage with Thornton’s Careers Programme, and help in any way, they should contact Jo Scott at jscott@thorntoncollege.com
For more information, visit the Thornton College website
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