Professional Guidance and Careers Update

By Ms Scofield
 

Professional Guidance Department Newsletter June 23

On Wednesday 21 June, Felsted was alive with the sound of excitement caused by a high performance McLaren car parked in the LRH courtyard. The beautiful McLaren was brought in courtesy of McLaren Automotive Ltd and formed a thrilling centre piece for our 2023 Futures Conference for Year 12.  

The day was buzzing with students, university outreach officers, careers and university application professionals and Old Felstedians who generously gave up their time to take part in the day as speakers on a range of subjects such as Oxbridge, Marketing and Management, Classics, Theatre Studies, History and PPE (Philosophy, Politics and Economics). Our speakers gave advice about the rigorous processes and experiences one can expect to experience when applying to university courses and apprenticeships.  
 

Representatives included those who flew in from Stirling and IE (International University in Spain) or drove all the way from Exeter, Nottingham, Essex Universities, London Interdisciplinary School, Elite Player Pathways and, of course, David Hawkins, author and CEO of ‘The University Guys’ a company who offer services to support students applying beyond the UK.  They spent the day answering questions and supplying practical training and advice on how to apply to universities and apprenticeships in order to gain the best experience from their next steps beyond Felsted.

Students are reminded that they should spend the summer writing the first draft of their personal statements and visiting universities to help with their choices. The following deadlines also appear in this ‘What Happens Next’ document which students and parents may find helpful:

Tuesday 5 September:
(First day of term) FINAL personal statements for early applicants and Common App essays for US Applicants to be with subject advising staff. You can make changes after this point, with advice, but you should consider this to be your final version.

2 October:
UCAS Applications for all early applicants to be completed including full examinations, pending examinations and Personal Statement, submitted via UCAS to LMS. References will then be finalised and the whole application will be discussed with the Director of Professional Guidance.

1 October:
Students applying for European or other International courses should have notified the Director of Professional Guidance of their intended applications by this date.  

30 November:
FINAL date for submission of UCAS applications to UCAS for Ms Scofield and Mrs Sunshine-Harris to finalise.

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Years 8 and 9 Careers Day

‘The Inspirational Learning Group’ returned to Felsted on Monday 26 June for our Years 8 & 9 combined careers day. Students worked collaboratively in mixed teams across the year groups to create ‘The Next Big Thing’ in teenage goods and services; pitching their ideas to a panel of judges. They worked on all aspects of the product from inception, design, marketing, finance and social media.

The range of innovative ideas from students from both Felsted Prep School and the Senior school were incredibly creative and judges were pleased to announce a group of winners who have qualified for the National Finals in Birmingham next month.