I joined Bourne Education Trust in 2017 at Chertsey High School where I took the role of Head of Science. Over the course of the school’s development, and my own, I took on a variety of roles including Data Protection Officer and Staff Governor finally coming to the role of Careers Leader in 2019. Coming out of COVID, a series of conversations and meetings between the BET, Wellnorth Enterprises and Brooklands Museum led to a secondment opportunity to join their learning team one day a week.
Working as part of this team we were able to identify ways in which Brooklands' history and collection could begin to unlock pupils' potential. It enabled faster-paced, creative development of a learning programme and over the course of the first year 520 pupils took part in multi-week challenges, and a main event day, that focused on the skills required for innovation and entrepreneurship, supported by 20 blue-chip businesses. This partnership has been nationally recognised and was awarded the Museum + Heritage Award for Learning Programme of the Year for it’s “innovative approach and impact”.
Alongside this I have been developing the careers programme at Chertsey High School using a framework pioneered by the CDI to integrate a skills-based programme that embeds itself into the school’s curriculum, actively encouraging pupils and staff to see beyond the accumulation of knowledge and look deeper into the skills that are developed and honed as they learn, which equip them as they enter the uncertain world of work.
Through my new role of Director of Careers in the Chertsey, Addlestone and Hampshire clusters, I hope to bring continuity - not just to the secondary schools (who all have well established careers departments), but also to their primary feeder schools to develop a careers related learning programme that follows pupils from early years through to post-16.