Text of Assembly on UCAS and careers plans this week

In case you missed it, here is the text of the assembly from yesterday - please complete the tasks on the handout before Thursday.

Next UCAS Steps Assembly July 10^th 2017

There is a right career, and a right choice at 18 for you, where your unique personal interests and skills fit with what society needs.  I hope that the last week, whether you were visiting CERN, attending Open Days or Summer Schools, or completing your work experience, has contributed towards working out what that choice should be. 

On Thursday, we are going to complete second drafts of your Personal Statements.  I have some of the ones which were handed in on March 17^th with me here, and can return them to you, but others appear to have gone missing. This does not matter, as writing freshly, rather than tinkering with an existing model, will lead to a better outcome.  On Thursday, we will briefly re-visit the guidance I gave you in March, look at some more exemplars of good and less good personal statements, and then write an improved version.  This improved version will then be added to and updated over the summer so that you have a completed one ready for submission to UCAS by 15^th September (if you are an early applicant) or by 16^th October (for everyone else). 

The reason for these early internal deadlines is that we want to make sure that we give you the most personal and detailed references possible – and that takes time. If you have been out on work experience this week, it is very important that you have asked your supervisor to send your tutor just a few lines of comment on what you did.  The best and most supportive Cheney references from last year often included this kind of quotation which provided expert evidence for your workplace or other skills.  If you have been part of a highly successful squad, ask your coach to send a line or two to your tutor. 

While you have been absent, your tutors have been at work preparing the short paragraphs which will go at the start and end of your reference, using the information which you have given them about your out of class activities.  These can’t be finally completed until we know what it is that you want to apply for, so tutors will be updating their drafts over the next couple of weeks, with your help, and again after September 11^th, when teaching staff will have done a final check on your subject references in the light of AS and UCAS predictor results. Your finalized reference will be used in support of your UCAS, apprenticeship or job application, and will be kept on file in case you need a reference at any time up to the age of 21. 

There is some homework which you need to do before Thursday.  

If you know what subject you want to do at university, please research specific courses and fill out this form which we will distribute at the end of the assembly.  It helps you to structure your choice of which five universities you will apply for, so that you have a balance of aspirational, solid, and safe choices and can therefore guarantee a range of offers whatever your results.  You must bring the form with you on Thursday. 

If you are not sure what you want to do at university, please register with the careers advice site SACU and complete their free Spartan personal aptitude test which will provide you with some suggestions for possible lines of enquiry.  I will be available to support you after school tomorrow in L2 and would be very grateful for some volunteers to join me then to evaluate the test and to give me advice on whether the school should invest in the subscription services offered.  You must come on Thursday with a print out of the suggestions from SACU, and with your own personal five point plan for careers research. It is a job in itself finding the right job, and you need to invest time in research now.  There are lots of possibilities. I went to visit Nielsen, a company specializing in worldwide market research, last Monday, and they were very keen to tell me about their degree level apprenticeships, delivered in association with Brookes. Apprentices are paid £10,000 and rising a year, work on projects in the company from Monday to Thursday lunchtime, have Thursday afternoon to study as a group, and spend Fridays at Abingdon and Witney college which is contracted by Brookes to provide their academic programme, leading to a degree in Business at the end of three years.  Apprentices have access to all Brookes facilities and can take part in student societies and sports clubs in the evening and at weekends.  Although they don’t get the full-time experience of being a student, or of studying intensively five days a week, they benefit from being able to see the links between academic study and the world of business directly in the workplace. They also complete their degree without any debt.  They will come to do an assembly in September to tell you more.  I should of course add that the applications process is highly competitive. For most of you going to university will be the right thing, but for some of you it will be well worth considering alternatives, or making both a UCAS and some apprenticeship applications. 

If you think you are likely to be an early applicant – going for Oxbridge or Medicine, or if you are applying to any kind of highly competitive university, please come to L14 at lunchtime tomorrow, without fail, for a detailed briefing.  Phoebe Day, a former Cheney student now at Cambridge, will be around to talk about her experiences of early application. 

Finally, Michael Paulin, a former Cheney student who left the school in 1996, and is now a barrister in London, will be visiting the school on Friday.  I would be very grateful for a volunteer or volunteers who are interested in reading law, to give him a tour from 12noon onwards on that day.  He will be giving a talk about careers in law during Period Five – please let me know if you would like to attend. He has contacts in a wide range of London professions and may be able to advise on a range of  careers outside law as well.