Careers Week 2025
It was great to see so many parents, alumni, trustees and external volunteers in school last week, giving up so much of their time to provide first-hand careers information for our students.
Apprenticeship Workshop
On Monday, a number of Year 13 students attended an Assessment Centre Workshop (ACW) delivered by our careers advisor from Navigating Careers. For those students who took part in our new Apprenticeship Support Programme, it was an opportunity to prepare for an ACW, which is a significant aspect of the apprenticeship application process.
Assembly
Our assembly on Tuesday was delivered by BEAM, Hertford. Our visitor talked of her career pathway and her current job, as well as other roles at BEAM. She also informed the students of the numerous off-stage roles. Our Years 7 and 8 were interested throughout.
Year 12 Careers Morning
On Wednesday, we ran a careers morning for our Year 12 students. We were extremely lucky to have 33 volunteers dedicate their time to talk about their career, what they do, how they got into it, a typical day/week, routes into that career, etc. This was then followed by a short Q&A.
We grouped our speakers by sector, and had representatives from SKY, Deloitte, Vodafone, the NHS, Metropolitan Police, Hertfordshire Police, Vogue, Sainsbury’s, the Home Office, Screwfix, Attwaters Jameson Hill, Snapchat, tranScrip, Middleton School, GSK and the London Stock Exchange, to name but a few.
Our Year 12 students were asked to sign up to the talks that they were interested in and it was clear they greatly appreciated the event, finding the morning both enjoyable and informative.
Year 8 ‘Work Shadowing Day’
This year, our Year 8 Work Shadowing Day was on Wednesday. We hope that this taste of the world of work proved an enriching educational experience and helped our students to see how the skills they learn at school will equip them, and perhaps inspire them, for their future career.
On Wednesday 5th March I went to my Dad’s office to experience a day’s work shadowing him at Just Park, where he works as Head of Product. We took 18 Year 9 students to the University of Hertfordshire on Thursday. Our students took part in a fun Team Building activity and a ‘Why go to University’ workshop. This was followed by an accommodation and campus tour led by Student Ambassadors. The visit to the campus allowed our Year 9s to discover what it is like to study at university and to hear about the benefits of a higher education degree, as well as the variety of university courses on offer. For this event, we had 19 visitors coming into school on Friday to help with mock interviews. Our Year 10s spent 10/15 minutes with the interviewer being asked a few questions and discussing the CV they created in Unifrog during the CV writing workshops, giving them a chance to use the interview skills they learnt in the workshops. It was a very enjoyable day with excellent participation and interaction from the students. The external interviewers provided extremely positive feedback. We consider this event to be a significant enhancement to our careers curriculum, and its success can be attributed to the dedication and efforts of our wonderful volunteers. It would be great to have more parents and alumni involved next year. If you are open to supporting this, please let us know by completing the Parent Database Google Form or by emailing: careers@presdales.herts.sch.uk. Also on Friday, we welcomed Debut Academy into school to give a lunchtime talk. Debut provides training to apprentices across all age groups, specialising in hair, beauty, makeup and nails. Debut have academies located within Hertfordshire, offering both funded and private training courses covering Beauty, Education & Aesthetics. We were pleased with the number of students who attended and it was great to see that they were engaged from the start. We constantly search for new opportunities for our students to learn about future career paths. If you have a suggestion for an activity or could support our careers programme in any other way, we would love to hear from you. Some of the ways you could help us are: Please click here to complete a short survey detailing what support you feel you can offer. Thank you in advance and please let us know if you have any questions.
The office is based in Camden so we got the train together in the morning and got to the office just after 9:30 am.
When we got there I had a tour of the office and then I had meetings with 2 people from the marketing department and 1 person from the analytics department. They both gave me an introduction to their roles and I learned about how marketing is a varied job.
My dad had arranged for me to have lunch in the office as they have a chef who provides a cooked lunch every day. We had chicken curry which was extremely delicious.
After lunch I met with 2 people who worked in the engineering department and they showed me the code they were writing for a project being worked on. After that I spent some time with my dad’s colleague who also works in the product team.
My dad also showed me some of the things he was working on and I learnt about the data analysis tools he uses to help him in his job.
After this we got the train home from Camden to Hertford.
Amelie Martin
We left the house at 7:45 and we went straight to the train station. I already had my ticket so it was pretty quick getting on the train. When we got onto the train it was already packed but it was only 8:15 which did surprise me, a few minutes later we luckily found seats which I was grateful for. The train ride was over quickly and we got off in a hurry to get to the office. Luckily the office is just above the train station so we got there swiftly.
The offices were so nice and had a stunning view over London. They had a kitchen in there with free sweets! When I got to my desk I found a bag with a lot of merchandise in it. When I opened the bag I found 2 jumpers, a t-shirt, notebook, pen, tote bag, lanyard, Chillys water bottle and a load of stickers. I went to a meeting but I didn’t understand most of what they were saying but afterwards there was lunch at McDonalds which I was looking forward to. As we were going back we bought some sushi for later on.
When we were back in the office I was able to help set up for the headshots with James, the photographer. He helped me understand how to set up and use the camera. He also took my picture which was really cool. Afterwards we did some Photoshop and I made a scratch project. After we said our goodbyes (and I took some sweets) we were able to get onto the train home. It was less chaotic than the train ride there and we were able to get seats easily.
Isla Bowkett
During my work day at GSK, I looked around the tablet manufacturing process, respiratory line and the clinical trial process (including stability chambers). I was understanding about the process of launching new products, as well as learning about how inhalers are made and saw the warehouse containing the inhaler drug powder to help an asthmatic person’s lungs expand and help them to breathe during an asthma attack. It would have been nice to have been able to go into the labs (my mum’s area of work) but am unfortunately under aged so could only see it vaguely through the window. I saw a presentation about bronchioles and the process in which new products are tested. All in all, it was a successful day and I am excited for what the future could hold for my job and having this day’s experience has broadened my scope on what I may want to do when I’m older and have more of an understanding of what a working place is like.
Poppy West
For my work shadowing I went to a dog grooming place. I got to see multiple dogs being washed, dyed, brushed, cut, and get a new fresh look.
I got shown different types of dogs and there different behaviours plus I was taught about the different kind of equipment. It was really fun since I love animals and watching it was great. I also saw the dogs going on the tables and I even saw a blind dog get dyed pink – it was really cool and fun.
Matilda Shambrook
I spent the day at IT Luggage HQ which is based in Hertford but has offices in Spain and America.
I started the day by touring the building and meeting everyone in all the departments – I visited Customer Services, Buying, Design + Graphics, Accounts and Logistics.
I spent the first part of my day in Logistics and Buying – this was learning about how big customers place their orders and how the orders are moved from the warehouse to the customers delivery hub. This was lots of computer work and looking at suitcase samples – they can make changes to some of the suitcase parts such as the colours of the zips, wheels before the final product is made in bulk.
I helped the Reception tidy and set up the showroom ready for a Buying and Accounts meeting – the showroom is where customers come to pick suitcase styles and designs to have in their stores. I set up the cases the customer had chosen to look at and also the mood boards. I also helped lay out refreshments like tea, coffee and waters and stocked the fridge with soft drinks and laid out the fruit and sandwhiches.
I then spent the afternoon in Design and Graphics this was my favourite department as I got to look at all the different parts of the suitcase, the fabrics and prints and I also got to follow the design process with one of the senior designers. I was also able to use the design software to create my own suitcase and make a 3d rendered image of it. I enjoyed this part the most as it was still computer work but using software which was new to me but I also got to see a finished product at the end.
Graphics make the Point of Sale for each suitcase; they are designing the hangtags and information that is attached to the suitcase when it is put out on the shop floor. I also enjoyed this as it was process which ended up in a finished product that you can see and also the computer programmes they used were more art based instead of number based.
By experiencing a day at a workplace this has helped me to understand the things that I have an interest in and that I would like investigate for the future and to have a better understanding of what I would like to explore as a career.
Amelia Clements
For my work experience I went to London with my dad to put up some posters advertising his company and magazines. We had brunch at Bills then we headed home. I then did some returns for 20 minutes then we finished.
Lottie Stocker
In the morning from about nine to nine thirty I watched my dad have a call with the University of Norway, Gockstead about a change of invoice. After that when the call ended my dad had to respond to urgent and quick reply emails. About half an hour after that, my dad had a meeting with his peers in the warehouse to plan education for moving shipments from a to b. This took about an hour before my dad had to email his boss some requested ideas for the company. After this we had a break in which we had some lunch before we soon had to go back to the workplace to negotiate a contract between a university and business by answering their questions and giving them real life scenarios about how they could partner up to support each others processes. This was the end of his working day and my work shadowing day and I learned some interesting things about what life is like in work in the real world.
Phoebe Mortimer
Sophie Sawdy spent the day at The Federation of Widford and Hunsdon JMI Schools, where she shadowed her mum who is a Teaching Assistant at the Widford site, and her dad who is the Site manager for the Widford and Hunsdon sites.Hertfordshire University Trip
Year 10 ‘Big Interview Day’
Lunchtime Talk
Parent Database
Assemblies this week
On Monday this week, Jess, from the Essex & Herts Air Ambulance Trust, came into Presdales to talk to our Year 7 & 8s about what the Air Ambulance does, and also its history, fleet and air bases. She told us who is in the helicopter and what it carries, what the critical care team dispatch process involves and which hospitals they usually fly to.
Jess explained the numerous roles that make the Air Ambulance such a success – from the Pilots and Critical Care Paramedics to the Patient & Family Liaison Officers. She also discussed her role as a Fundraising Coordinator and how she got into the charity sector.
On Wednesday, for our Year 9 & 10 assembly, we welcomed back representatives from Hanbury Manor who talked firstly about the history of Hanbury Manor and Marriotts, then about career pathways: apprenticeship vs. academic qualifications, travel perks and allowances, rewards and growth opportunities, as well as a whole host of additional benefits.
Our assembly on Friday was hosted by Sgt Doug Harvey from the Royal Air Force. He educated the Years 11, 12 and 13 students on the different aviator specialisations and officer/non-commissioned aircrew specialisations in the RAF. He talked about apprenticeships as well as the opportunity to receive sponsorship through university.
It was really kind of our guest speakers to give up their time for our assemblies, which was greatly appreciated by our students. They were engaged throughout and they found the presentations very informative – as did the staff!
Year 10 Work Shadowing & Year 12 Work Experience – Reminder
Year 10 Work Shadowing – Wednesday 2nd July 2025
Year 12 Work Experience – Tuesday 8th and Wednesday 9th July 2025
