Inspiring Year 12 Recordings (Replacing our Sharing of Expertise Afternoon)

Please can you help?
With current social distancing regulations and school closures, our aim is to transform our Inspiring Year 12 Afternoon into a virtual smorgasbord to inspire our Year 12 students.

How can you help?

Please send us a short recording (in any format) of around 3 mins which we will then upload and make available to our current Year 12s. Our aim is for you to share your experiences and expertise to inspire our Year 12s at a time when they are making decisions about their next steps. You can be as creative as you like (within reason) - we essentially want you to share the decisions you made and your journey to where you are now.  This, we hope, will encourage our current students to think about the vast range of opportunities and careers on offer and to remind them there really are no limits.

Why are we asking for your help?

Our aim is to ‘broaden horizons’ both in courses and career options. With around 86% of AGS students deciding to go straight to university perhaps some of our students do not fully understand the sheer breadth of opportunities available.  Some cannot envisage their future careers, especially since many of those jobs do not yet exist. We want you to share and inspire in order to give our students the confidence to explore the great raft of possibilities out there – whether that’s courses at university, apprenticeships or specific careers.  Any advice and experience from former students will have far more gravitas than a website or careers talk.

Content

We don’t want this to be overwhelming. It really will only take a few minutes of your time and so here’s a steer on the sort of things we would love you to include:

Introduce yourself – basic information such as name, when you were at school, House (it does matter to them!). This could include what you do now though that can be given later depending on how you decide to present it.
School information - what you studied for A Level and things you did in the Sixth Form (sports, arts or other interests especially if they helped you in choosing a career or building confidence etc). You don’t need to share your grades but you can if you want to - just try and give a picture of what you were like at School and then what you did next.
Where you are now - explain where you are now – whether that’s still at Uni, or your current role. Include what you love about it, how you decided upon it, what motivated you to choose it or how you got into it etc.
Your route to where you are now – Clearly this will vary massively depending on your current circumstances. It would be so helpful if you could explain how you got to where you are now and to share if there was anything ‘unconventional’ or unusual about your journey.  It’s important that our Year 12 students understand about how life is not always ‘set in stone’ and different paths can lead to different places, and that this may not be obvious at the point they are currently.
Any advice for them at their age. Sort of advice to your former self/Pearls of Wisdom. What you wished someone would have told you at their age…or just something important you want to pass on to the future generations.
 
Interaction
It would be great if you could include the best contact details for you in your recording so our students can contact you directly if they have any specific questions. Think of it as a form of mentoring but if you’re not comfortable sharing contact details directly we of course can facilitate  questions. Just let us know how you would prefer to be contacted when you submit your recording.

When do we need the recording by?
It would be great if you could submit your recording by June 15^th 2020 via the email address inspiringyear12@ags.bucks.sch.uk.  Any issues with attaching or uploading your recording, please use this address also.

Finally
These are of course challenging times for us all and we continue to encourage our students to focus on their studies but this is an opportunity for you to share your expertise and to inspire our Sixth Form Students.  It a brilliant way of giving back to the School and we hope, for you too, a very worthwhile exercise.
Be honest but also remember the target students are Year 12 – they are just 16 or 17. We still do have certain school regulations to adhere to including language and appearance (including what can be seen in the background) which has to be appropriate for a school environment. All submissions will be checked before release and only AGS students will have access to our platform where they will be uploaded.
https://static.lgfl.net/LgflNet/downloads/digisafe/Safe-Lessons-by-Video-and-Livestream.pdf

It would be absolutely amazing if you could help us and if you have any questions on content or detail then please email: inspiringyear12@ags.bucks.sch.uk.   

We very much look forward to receiving your recording.

Huge thanks

Laura Adams,  Alison Cox & Ellie Treherne