U4 World of Work Day with Queen Anne's Alumnae

On Friday 11 January, the U4 year group took part in a World of Work options day. This day focussed on thinking more about their futures, and work on career planning and pathways.

Our U4 students will soon be choosing their GCSE subjects, and with the deadline of Friday 1 February fast approaching, the ‘World of Work’ options day was an ideal opportunity for the girls to start thinking about how the GCSEs they choose could shape their future.

The day started off with career planning and research. The U4’s were encouraged to think about they skills they confident with, and which skills could be improved. Some examples included verbal communication, time and self-management, and thinking and problem solving.

Our students learned about the STAR approach to research:

• Be Specific about what you want to find out.
• Set yourself a few Tasks for each research session.
• Make notes along the way – this is your Action.
• Then come to your Result, which should be to organise your notes and discuss your findings.
• They then put the STAR approach to research into practice, by researching some unique careers, including: hydrologist, lexicographer and a UX designer.

Mr Boyes and Mr Stephenson then spoke to our U4’s about ‘GCSE’s and beyond’. They were then joined by some of our current GCSE students who shared their advice on how to cope with GCSEs.

Head of Economics, Mrs Robinson, later led our U4 students in a Finance session, speaking about the importance of money management as a life skill.

Our last session of the day was one which the U4 girls had been looking forward to most: ‘World of Work Speed Information Session’ with Queen Anne’s Alumnae.

Our U4’s were joined by 11 former Queen Anne’s students, from different work sectors.

This gave our U4 the opportunity to talk about their career aspirations with former students who have already walked in their footsteps. Our U4’s were put into groups and rotated around the room to speak to all of our visiting alumnae, asking any questions they may have.

We would like to say a big thank you to all our Queen Anne’s alumnae who joined us today.

We have such a strong alumnae society and are very grateful to them for taking the time to visit us and talk to the girls; it was clear that they are all still Queen Anne’s girls at heart!

A big thank you also goes to our Head of Lower School, Mrs McGrenary, and Careers Advisor, Mrs Noyes, for organising ‘World of Work’ day.