During the Autumn Term, more than 120 pupils attended four networking breakfasts covering Creative Careers, Technology, Sustainability, and Entrepreneurship. We also marked Green Careers Week, took a group of Fifth and Sixth Form pupils to the UCAS Create your Future event and a group of budding architects on a workplace visit, held University Subject Forums for Classics and Law, and ran a Third Form futures activity during Pastoral Morning to build career awareness, teamwork and presentation skills. We welcomed over 20 international universities to speak to pupils, highlights included our first ever visit from Yale University and a superb University of California applications workshop.
As we start the Spring term, the Futures programme continues to help ensure that our pupils are ready for life beyond CLS. Our aim is to equip them with the skills, confidence and experience to thrive at university, in work and in life, with an approach built around three core themes: Explore, Experience, and Engage. These guide pupils from early curiosity about careers and developing self-awareness, through meaningful encounters with employers, to making informed choices about their next steps.
For our Junior Sixth Form, the Spring Term is key: following the UCAS ‘soft-launch’ last term, where they learned about the UCAS process and met their subject advisors to discover more about their own preferred subjects, they will attend our Higher Education Evening, with keynote speakers from UCL and University of Cambridge, and if applying to the US, our US Universities evening too. Expert one to one guidance will of course be available with our highly skilled Futures team. University subject forums, featuring Old Citizens who are studying at university or recently graduated, will be held throughout the term across the full range of courses of interest, with Economics and Art, Design & Architecture coming up first. Although targeted at Junior Sixth formers, these subject forms are open to all pupils in Fourth Form and up, Our US applicants will begin their weekly application preparation sessions and in March (and June), we will be taking all Junior Sixth pupils to the UCAS Discovery Event at the Excel centre so that they can meet the full range of universities and degree apprenticeship providers. Other exciting events include a workshop for humanities applicants, led by leading scholars from IE University, Madrid, and a Choral Scholars trip to Trinity College, Cambridge.
For Fifth Form and Junior Sixth Form, this term brings the launch of our CLS placements programme, a chance to move from career exploration to real-world experience. Not only do we offer an exciting range of placements, but we also offer guidance and support in making applications. In their City+ sessions, Senior Sixth Form pupils will benefit from our Transition to University programme; in this first week of term, they have already enjoyed a Futures event, including a session led by a consultant from the University of Cambridge careers department and a panel of aimed at helping them get ahead in navigating careers services at university and making successful applications to internships, placements and ultimately to graduate roles. Competition for graduate roles is fierce, and we recognise the value in preparing our pupils to approach this journey with resilience and readiness.
Alongside these milestones, pupils across all year groups will engage with futures topics and activities through PSHEE, national initiatives such as National Apprenticeships Week in February, National Careers Week in March, featuring an array of fun futures-focused events, and International Women’s Day. This term sees the launch of our Futures Ambassadors initiative for Lower School pupils, following Mr Swann’s Futures assembly in November in which he discussed World Economic Forum skills and how these link to school life, Networking breakfasts continue to provide inspiration, with themes this term including entrepreneurship and STEM careers. These events are designed to spark curiosity and broaden horizons, as well as give pupils an opportunity to engage in professional conversations, developing their commercial awareness and networking skills.
Parental engagement is very important to us, and we hosted webinars for Senior Sixth Form parents on the UCAS process, an introduction to the Sixth Form Futures timeline for Junior Sixth Form parents, and an insight into applications for medicine, dentistry and veterinary science for parents across the school.
A huge thank you to those parents for partnering with us in preparing pupils for their future, whether this is through your own participation in our events and activities, or through supportive conversations at home. Whether it’s asking about PSHEE lessons, connecting hobbies to workplace skills, sharing insights from your own career or encouraging your child to participate in our events, your involvement makes a real difference.
