‘Futures Event’
Last week’s Life Education Collapsed Day on Thursday included a range of events and saw our annual ‘Futures Event’ take place, with 78 visitors and 3 guest speakers. It was a very busy day for our students. The day provided our students in Years 9-13 with the opportunity to gain a real insight into the wide variety of future career paths available to them. We were delighted to welcome over 30 different businesses and organisations including Babcock International, The Royal Navy, The RAF, Royal Marines The British Army, the MOD, GHQ Training, Plymouth University, Vospers, Peninsular School of Medicine and Dentistry, Princess Yachts, Plymouth City Council, City College Plymouth, Next Steps Southwest and Achievement Training to name but a few. The day went really well and we look forward to expanding this even further next year
In particular we would like to thank our new Enterprise Adviser – Carl Heslop, MD of Obedair Construction for all his help and support this year.
A huge thank you goes to both the staff that organised the day and the exhibitors for participating.
Year 7 – had an Introduction to Careers@Plymstock – they considered their dream lifestyle and learnt about different job roles by playing ‘The Real Game’, a budgeting exercise.
Year 8 – looked at Employment Sectors – researched employment areas and local labour market information before completing activities on the ‘can-do-attitude’.
Ms Ellis reported that her Year 8 tutor group really enjoyed the collapsed session, especially thinking about what different types of jobs were around in Plymouth. The students said the activities worked really well. Below is a picture of the mind-maps they made as a tutor group.
Year 9 – had a guest speaker, Stephen Seki, who talked about his journey: from Farmer to Pharmacist. Stephen explained how he grew up in poverty in Uganda but is now a successful pharmacist and motivational speaker. He gave a hugely inspirational talk and talked about failure and how to believe in yourself, to be the best you can be. “But each time I failed I knew it wasn’t the end. I knew I could do better the next time. I knew I could recover.” Stephen explained that life doesn’t come easy and nobody has a right to be successful. “If you want something then you have to go out and get it. You have to work for it; and work harder than anyone else because the competition is very fierce out there.” Finally, he talked about dreams and not giving up “If you want to live a happy life, tie it to a dream.”
Following on from Stephen the students went on to activities to help them consider possible future jobs. Finally they attended the Futures Event – with the guest appearance from a Plymouth Raider player arranged by our Enterprise Adviser, Carl Heslop, (Obedair Construction)
For Year 10, the focus was on Employability Skills and preparing for the world of work, they also attended the Futures Event and had an Apprenticeship talk from City College
For Year 11, the focus in their GCSE year was on Next Steps and Career Action Planning. They also attended an Apprenticeship talk from Sharron Robbie, Apprenticeship Adviser, and the Futures Event
The Sixth Form took part in two activities: Preparing for University and ‘You’re Hired’ Event.
Following our successful Careers Collapsed Sessions and Futures Event, Careers@Plymstock would like to draw your attention to a number of useful Careers websites which we use to support all our students on their ‘Careers Journey’ here at Plymstock School:
We ‘buy in’ – Unifrog which is an interactive careers platform enabling students to research career and option choices. It also has a number of tools to help students research and manage their own career development including a Careers and Subjects Library, Competencies Tracker and CV Builder. Students will shortly be issued with details on how to register and be given their ‘form code’ via Show My Homework; they will be able to sign in for the first time and create their own accounts, if they haven’t already done so. https://www.unifrog.org/sign-in
Finally, if you think you may be able to help or support our Careers Programme in any way, we are always grateful for your help so please get in touch!
Careers Team, Plymstock School
The Learning Institute Teacher Training Update
The past 6 weeks have seen our trainee teachers continue their development within the Plymstock School Training Hub, focusing on –
• Behaviour management & establishing positive learning environments
• Effective lesson planning and ‘How we Learn’
• Differentiated learning strategies
• Rosenshine’s Principles of Instruction
• Kagan cooperative learning
Each session is based on the latest educational research and aims to develop the skills future teachers require in order for all students to make exceptionally strong progress, regardless of their starting points.
Last week’s session focused on Retrieval Practice through Spaced Learning and Interleaving, where trainees were set a series of practical tasks aimed at improving memory recall allowing teachers to monitor student understanding.
Year 10 Travel and tourism students visit Looe
Last week our Year 10 Travel and Tourism students visited Looe. They conducted some fantastic brilliant research, highlighting why Looe is such a popular tourist destination. Despite the rain they were in fantastic spirits! They were a credit to the school when engaging with locals conducting questionnaires about why Looe is so successful in the tourism industry. The trip allowed students to apply what they are learning in the classroom to a real life context. A big thank you to all of them for their excellent work!
Health and Social Care
Year 12 Health and Social Care Students welcomed Leeshia Walton (our very own Designated Safeguarding Lead and former nursing lecturer) to their lesson last Friday for ‘Manual Handling Training’. The students are currently completing a unit on Health and Safety in Health and Social Care settings. Leeshia gave a snapshot of Manual Handling Legislation before the students completed a number of practical activities.
Can you spot the ‘non-student’ who looks suspiciously like Mr Sprenkel who was passing by and decided to join in!
6th Form Art and Photography Trip
Last weekend Miss Graves and Mr Hurd-Thomas took our 6th Form Art and Photography students into London for the Art Department’s annual trip to visit galleries and museums. They visited the V & A and Tate Modern, as well as seeing St Paul’s Cathedral and walking across the River Thames via the Millennium Bridge (in the background of this photo). They travelled up by train and got around using the Tube – London’s Underground railway.
It was a brilliant day and thoroughly enjoyed by staff and students alike!
The Year 9 Netball team
The Year 9 Netball team played some fantastic and inspirational netball this week. They really demonstrated what it means “to be the best you can be”
The girls beat PHSG convincingly and were amazing against DHSG, in the end losing by one goal! It was a fabulous performance by all and the following girls all deserve high praise for exceptional effort and being the best they could be!
Chloe, Connie, Eve, Freya, Amber, Charlotte, Becca and Amy.
Mrs Kirk and the school are very proud of you – Well done girls!
Careers@Plymstock
Our fifth week of Careers Insight focuses on Careers in The Armed Forces. West #Gatsby Benchmarks
This clip shows the Royal Marines in action, but all the Armed Forces require similar skills and qualities …. What do you think these could be?
https://www.careerpilot.org.uk/job-sectors/armed-forces/job-profiles
If students are considering a career in the armed forces and want to see if they’d enjoy it, they could become a Cadet.
All cadets take part in ceremonial events as well as adventurous outdoor activities and camps, some of which may be overseas, and there’s the chance to work towards a range of qualifications, including the Duke of Edinburgh’s award.
Many cadet forces have their own bands and there is the chance to get involved in playing music at military parades, band events and camps.
Personal Achievement Awards
This week’s Headteacher personal achievement awards take on a sporting theme. Well done to the following:
Harvey – who has a trial for the Exeter Chiefs this weekend, Luke who has a trial for Devon Schools rugby this weekend, Aiden – who recently competed in the England Nationals (swimming) competition in Glasgow and Thomas who was awarded top intermediate boy in the City of Plymouth swimming Gala 2019.
Thomas also received an award from the Mayor and Mayoress of Plymouth for his recent success in the City of Plymouth swimming Gala 2019; over two days of competition at the life centre.
Fantastic!
We now reach our students of the week section. All our winners demonstrating Endeavour, Resilience and Empathy; simply Plymstock to “be the Best you can be”
Our winners include:
Charlotte was nominated by her teachers for being kind in many lessons and helpful to her peers, she offers support before being asked.
Mr Wookey and Miss Holton were delighted to receive the following nomination for some excellent work Lily-May has produced about the Mayflower 400 project that Year 8 History students are working on. Mrs Wilkins said “her extended writing was impressive and her enthusiasm for this study is infectious. I am very impressed with her.”
Sophie has been nominated by a fellow Year 10 for always being hardworking and supportive of her peers. She is dedicated to her studies but always has the time to help others. What a brilliant example of our Plymstock Spirit, well done Sophie!
Year 11 are busy preparing for their mocks next week, Mrs Robb has been inundated with nominations for her hard working Year group. Well done to all of these students for both their hard work and resilience. Mrs Robb is really proud of the whole year group.
Kyran – for a renewed focus on his studies
Aiden – for his much improved attitude and effort with his studies.
James – Mr Wyatt said “he is playing a blinder in English at the moment. He is working really hard and hitting his grade 7 target pretty consistently. He is top of the class at the moment.”
Frank – was nominated both by his Head of Year and the careers team. They were approached by many of our exhibitors who had ‘scouted’ Frank, they explained that his attentive nature, ability to engage and communicate as well as an abundance of great questions would have pipped many other students to the post for apprenticeships. Two leading organisations explained that based on the way Frank presented himself at the Futures Event, they would keenly take him for an apprenticeship. Fantastic to see a student using these opportunities to benefit his future! Well Done Frank!
Trinity – Year 13
Tiff Linzell, our Careers Advisor, nominated Trinity for supporting the Futures Event; “non-stop energy and enthusiasm whilst supporting our exhibitors, any free moments she had she would go and speak with our own students to assist them with engaging with employers (she did this on her own merit)”.
“She was an asset on the day, and will make a valuable employee to any organisation. Even the students called her ‘Miss’ because of her maturity and professionalism throughout. Miss Linzell would happily have her as a Personal Assistant!
And finally…
A final reminder of an event tomorrow if you want to ‘Get into Teaching’ and we hope you do!
If you are thinking of a career in teaching, or know someone who is, please join us for our ‘Get into Teaching’ open morning on Saturday 30th November in the Galley, 10:00 – 12:00. The team from The Learning Institute South West will be on hand to discuss the Primary/Secondary Initial Teacher Training course and can answer questions on funding, entry requirements, PGCE qualifications and routes into the teaching profession.
To sign up for this event, please register here – https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/get-into-teaching-information-session-plymstock-school-tickets-80672767419?ref=estw
We are looking forward to meeting you.
Mr Kris Chick
Associate Assistant Head Teacher
Initial Teacher Training
