All students are expected to give up some of their free time to help others, either in support of students in our main school, in the local community or in the community where they live. This activity will form an important part of the profile which they will build up during their time in the Sixth Form and may help to ‘market’ them in the competitive world of Higher Education and employment. It is always good to see our students giving something back, and it says a lot about the sort of person they are. Our Enrichment Coordinator can help them with this.

Options inside the school include: taking visitors on tours; helping with school events; working with younger students in lessons; mentoring GCSE students; supporting tutor groups; helping students develop their literacy; helping with clubs, music, sporting or faith-based activities.

Options outside of school include: working with our local primary school or nursery; helping elderly residents at local care homes and hospitals etc.

Some useful links for volunteering:

World Volunteer - an organisation and database to support short term and long term volunteering opportunities here and abroad, during or after your studies.

Year in Industry - a chance to spend a year between A Levels and University getting experience of the world of industry and earning some money.

The Sixth Form's policy and procedure for work experience placements can be found here.

All students are expected to have some work-related experiences during Sixth form. This could be visits or seminars by employers or work placements. Gaining practical work experience is very valuable to support their personal statement when applying to university for particular courses or for jobs. It is absolutely essential for applicants to Medicine, Dentistry, Veterinary Science, Teaching and Law.  

We strongly encourage students to pursue this when possible and will support time out of school for it where this is unavoidable, and it clearly supports your progression plan. If our Activities Week is able to happen at the end of Year 12, then this is an ideal time to arrange some work experience.

If a student arranges work experience during weekends or holidays, then we would like to know about it, but this would be a private arrangement. We will not carry out any checks or supervision, so it is down to the student to check with the provider that they are covered by their insurance and appropriately supported and supervised.

If a student would like to do work experience during the school day, either on an occasional basis or for block periods, then it is important that they contact the Enrichment Coordinator with this information. We want to know where they are and who is supervising them. We have a letter for students to give them which asks them to confirm that they are properly supervised, that appropriate safeguarding checks are in place, and that the student is covered by their insurance. We will also seek some feedback from them at the end of the placement, so we can include this in any reference we write. 

If you are considering a work experience placement as part of your planned and funded learning hours in Year 13 you should complete this proposal form.

If you are considering a work experience placement during the school day at any other time (including Activities Week) you should complete this form.