Enrichment Week is always a busy one for the Careers and HE Department. Students across years 7, 10 and 12 participated in numerous careers and Higher Education related activities. 

There were work insight visits on three days for years 10 and 12 to a wide range of places of employment including the Supreme Court, Google, Timberseed recruitment, Deutsche Bank, AtkinsRéalis, Rothschild & Co, Pinewood Studios, the Wellington Hospital, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and the Centre of the Cell at Queen Mary, University of London. These visits are very impactful, as can be seen from these comments from our students: 

“During my visit to Atkins Realis, I explored what it’s like to work in a global engineering and project management consultancy. …It made me realise how engineering can be both creative and impactful, especially in solving problems like climate change and reducing things like car accidents..”

Lili B, year 10

“I visited Google’s office in London. Two employees spoke about their careers and the role of AI, especially Google’s Gemini. We had a tour of the Google office, which gave us a glimpse into the work environment and how they value the happiness of their employees. We were even given cupcakes at the end! Both speakers highlighted the importance of being curious, open-minded, and involved in things outside of school.”

Ella C, year 10

“I had the amazing opportunity to visit the Supreme Court. It was a really impressive building, and it was a lot grander than I had expected. We got to sit in on small parts of two hearings. One of them was about taxes, which proved to be really eye-opening. It was really surprising how complicated the case was and how much work and research goes into each argument. Even though I didn’t understand everything that was being said, it showed me how important law is in everyday lives.”

Caye B-F, Year 10

Years 7 and 10 completed two different activities with social enterprise company 8billionideas. Year 7 were challenged ‘Across the board’ to come up with ideas for new board games. They learned about the iterative process, working in a team and created some wonderful ideas - and a lot of mess! Year 10 were ‘Charity Founders’. Working with some students from St Aloysius they identified a problem, devised a charitable approach to solving it, proposed a business plan, learned about getting their message across effectively and made their pitches.

 Year 10 developed further oracy skills through their ‘Talk about communication’ workshop with Talk the talk. Despite the stifling heat, the groups remained focused and everyone gained confidence in speaking that will help in their GCSEs and beyond into A levels, university and careers.

On Wednesday Year 12s spent a whole day focused on their university applications. Talks on how to write a great personal statement from the University of Bath, support in drafting these from the Universities of Sheffield and Nottingham and targeted input for Oxbridge students and those applying overseas meant much progress was made. A ‘Q & A’ session with a recent Channing alumna allowed students to ask their key questions about university life and study. 

The Careers Convention on Thursday offered Year 10 and 12 students the chance to choose between more than 25 different careers talks. With areas ranging from the armed services through investment banking and music performance to veterinary science, students were able to find out key facts, ask questions and network with the speakers. 

The Careers and HE Department, on behalf of all the students, is extremely grateful to all our supporters who contributed towards the success of the activities across the week. We thank all the current parents, former parents, alumnae, friends and supporters of the school for their generous help in making these events so successful and impactful.