Preparing our students for ‘Life after Windermere’ is high priority for us. As part of a wider careers programme,  pupils explore potential career pathways through Morrisby Career advisor online, through Life Skills lessons and work experience placements in Years 10 and 12.

This year, we have focused on the importance of developing employability skills that pupils need to develop on top of their academic achievements. With this focus in mind, we invited over 30 organisations to come and share their experiences with Year 7 to 13 .

The Careers Conference was kicked off with an inspirational speech from Neil Jurd OBE. Neil is a global expert in leadership development. He is the Founder of Leader Connect, and author of The Leadership Book – the bestselling handbook to leadership and team development. His articles on leadership and team development regularly feature in international business publications and he is often a guest on leadership podcasts. Read the transcript of the speech here >

All pupils in the Senior School took part in the Conference selecting five organisations they wanted to engage with and hear about a career pathway. We were very pleased to welcome such a wide range of organisations from apprenticeships in accountancy and nuclear engineering to entrepreneurs setting up small business in health, fitness, commercial art and photography.

As a school which specialises in outdoor education and adventure, is was to fantastic to involve a number of organisations and individuals who work in the outdoor field to give our pupils an insight into how to develop a career in that sector. We were also supported by many of our Alumni, with past pupils working in Law, song writing and finance.

In the afternoon pupils in Years 10 to 13 took part in a set of mock interviews with many of the visitors who had kindly volunteered to spend their whole day with us. Interviews can be stressful and intimidating and we strongly believe that the more opportunities we give our pupils to practice the better prepared they will be when a real interview comes along.

The feedback from visitors from the morning and afternoon has been overwhelmingly positive with comments about how impressive and inspirational many of our pupils were, especially during the interviews. One visitor expressed that he is “very confident in the future, having met our young people”.

The next step on the careers journey this year is work experience for Year 10 pupils and our IBCP students in June.

Finally,  we try to instil in all our pupils a sense of purpose in their education, that the future they have is theirs and therefore it is ‘Your future, Your decisions and Your responsibility‘. A strong focus is on our young people exploring future pathways for themselves and being ambitious for their futures, and of course with the school as a constant and consistent guide for them throughout their journey here.

– Mrs Murray, IBCP Coordinator, Careers, Work Experience and BTEC Coordinator

Windermere School is an Independent Boarding and Day School for ages 3-18, across Junior School, Senior School and Sixth Form. The school offers holiday courses and a summer school programme, as well as short term immersion courses for international pupils, as well as an award winning IB programme. Join the adventure today >