Despite working from home, the Careers Department is as well connected with our students as before! The beauty of our relationship with our students is that we routinely speak to all of our Year 11, 12 and 13 students on an individual basis; now, in today’s digital working world, we are taking the opportunity to continue 1-2-1 careers consultations, CV reviews and other university queries via email and organised Google Meet conversations.
Importantly, the advice, support and guidance on offer does not and will not stop there – in addition to the regular posts about opportunities available online in whole year group and career-related Google Classrooms, we are also planning a series of presentations and videos to be made available on Google Classroom for students to watch, including a selection on wider reading, online courses, community action, volunteering, personal statement drafting, registering for UCAS, how to optimise the summer break and much more!
Moreover, our esteemed UCAS Preparation Week at the end of May will continue! Between May 25th and 29th, Year 12 students will attend a programme of live stream videos from Oxbridge Applications – the experts in supporting students in applying to Oxbridge and top UK universities! The full timetable will be released in due course, but students can benefit from workshops on personal statements, admissions test(s) they need for their chosen degree application (including UCAT and BMAT), interview workshops and even a mock panel interview practice via video. Keep posted to find out more details over the coming weeks!
International university application preparation has already started, with multiple meetings held with students interested in applying to the USA! We are currently in the midst of planning an SAT/ACT preparation programme for students to optimise their performance in these tests to support their applications to the Ivy League and other top US universities. Likewise, continued videos and audio-guided presentations will be made available over the coming weeks to support applications to countries around the world, including USA, Canada, Australia, Hong Kong and more – keep posted on Google Classroom for codes to join specific rooms related to your university choices.
In collaboration with Hannah Parkinson, our Alumni Coordinator, we have been planning some exciting developments to celebrate our Year 13. The mandatory closing of schools across the country and the cancellation of exams was certainly not the way we anticipated them finishing an otherwise brilliant two years at Cardiff, so we launched their ability to register on our @CSFCAlumniOfficial website early as a way to not only keep in touch with each other and staff, but to also benefit from the growing mentoring connections with alumni and industry professionals. The scope and possibilities of our online community is going from strength to strength, and hopefully they will be able to return as mentors willing to help their younger counterparts in the years to come.
One last reflective note from me – I have taken the time to look back and celebrate the success of all our alumni. Working from home, whilst it can feel isolating and you may that you are thousands of miles away from another, it has truly brought home the power and value of a global connectedness in a digital world. Going through our recorded university destinations of all of our alumni dating as far back as 2011, I was in awe at seeing first-hand the legacy of our Cardiff Sixth Form alumni visually on this map I created. I have always felt that it is a shame to have only worked with students for just two years of their educational journeys, but it is more than anything an honour to guide students in their paths to university, and for Cardiff to be a ‘launchpad’ to bright and successful futures around the world.
Categories: News
