Focus on Futures

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Year 12 finished off their year with a focus on the future and a trip into London to play Monopoly. 

They had two Futures Days and we were delighted to once again welcome visitors into school. The students did workshops on budgeting with Herts Young Homeless, on understanding your payslip with the Personal Finance Society, on resilience with Herts Mind and on life at university with the University of Hertfordshire. They also started the UCAS application process and started to write their personal statements. 

In addition to all of this, all the students also had a mock job interview, many with local businesses and organisations such as Metrobank, Gristwood and Toms, Clarion Homes, Elstree and Borehamwood Town Council and the Rotary Club. We were delighted to welcome back Hertswood alumni, Alfie Grace who after graduating from UCL now works as a data scientist. It was a great opportunity for the students to really think about their transferable skills and how to communicate them to an interviewer and many of the students had fantastic feedback and offers of mentoring. 

We also saw several Hertswood alumni come in and speak to the students. We had the pleasure of welcoming back, Dr Lana Al Nusair, who has just completed her degree in Medicine at Imperial College; Aiman Balhoul, who is currently studying Accountancy at the University of Nottingham as a PwC Flying Start student; Brandon Bevans who is currently studying at the University of Hertfordshire as well as being Head of Sports Science at Borehamwood Football Club;  Luke Boorman who will be starting his final year studying computer Engineering at the University of Warwick in the autumn; Bleon Shalaku who is studying international Relations at the University of Leeds and has just completed a year studying in Canada; Sofia Tyson who having achieved a first class degree in Law from the University of Leeds now writes for a legal contract platform and Rosie Walsh who has just completed her degree in History at the University of Oxford. This illustrious group spoke to the current cohort about their time at Hertswood, giving them advice on handling the challenges of Year 13 as well as offering them advice for life after Hertswood. 

After two very intense days, on Friday, the students headed into London to play our own version of Monopoly on Twitter. Having received starting packs in school with various landmarks in them, it was a race to get to them and tweet a photo to win the points. There were also various other ‘Chance’ and ‘Community Chest’ challenges throughout the day which saw students signing outside the Royal Opera House, giving campaign speeches as well as taking photos with tourists and a spot of hide and seek with the members of staff who were in London. The feedback from students was that they really enjoyed the competition and running around London and it was certainly a great way for them to end the year.