Bonkers Careers Fair!

The First and Second Year pupils were treated to an amazing array of ‘Bonkers’ careers on Tuesday this week and what fun we had exploring careers we might not normally have thought about! Twelve fantastically talented parents, Old Cats and representatives of the massive network of connections that Caterham School has, joined us for three hours to celebrate some very diverse and unusual professions.

We heard from the Head Concierge at Corinthia London about how he managed to get a very famous singer through the police cordons to get to the King’s Coronation, when she had received the necessary paperwork. He talked about the need to be determined and creative with problem solving but also how important it was to be respectful and understanding when dealing with such a high profile situation. Carrying on with the theme of the coronation, we were delighted to welcome Janet who not only bound the King’s Coronation Bible but was also integral in cross stitching the Coronation Scroll together. The pupils were fascinated at the myriad of stages and attention to detail required in this profession. She had even bound a book to go in the library of the doll’s house at Windsor Castle!

Being a stunt double for Sylvester Stallone, James Bond and in A Game of Thrones drew pupil questions on how dangerous the job was and had anybody passed away as a stuntman, but Jonathan also gave some very good advice about how precarious this career path could be and how it was a good idea to have a backup job when things were quiet. And did you know that to become an animal physiotherapist, you had to first train as a human specialist first? Bizarre!

The above were just a few of the roles covered and we were so lucky to hear from an interior designer, an entrepreneur, a vertical hydroponic farmer, a bug farmer, a music photographer and a theatre director who regaled us with their wisdom and expertise. 

We had some great feedback from the pupils too.

“I didn’t know you could train as an animal physiotherapist and I am now really excited that I can do this!”

“Bugs are fun, even if they are complicated and a bit scary!”

“Being a Captain in the Army sounds very exciting and I think the travelling sounds fun.”

“Getting to watch bands for free sounds so cool but do you think a tour bus gets very smelly?”

“Emily said her friends teased her about wanting to become a photographer so I think its good to be determined to do the job you want.”

“I think being a stuntman would be great fun and it was good to hear about what you need to do to be one. He had some really cool tattoos!”

“It was really hard to guess the candle smells but I loved the one that reminded me of my Grandad!”

” There are so many different jobs that we don’t usually hear about, so it was fun to get out of lessons and find out what else I could do”

“I thought you had to have earth to grow food”

“You need to be patient to work with people!”

“Working in a hotel sounds like really hard work and you have to be nice to everyone. I am not sure I can do that all the time!”

“I thought all books were made by a machine or a robot so it was good hearing about how other smarter books are made. I didn’t know they were sewn by hand”

“It sounds like running a business is quite difficult and you need to be able to talk to lots of people to get thing going”

“That lettuce farm looked like something from space! It was fun eating the lettuce and basil.”

“Everybody seemed to like their job. My Dad is always moaning about his so maybe he needs to find a new one!”

A massive thank you to everyone who took part and congratulations to Gigi and Daniel C who won the Panjango Careers Game in the Bonkers Bingo draw.