Life Beyond Caterham

During Arts Week, Lower Sixth Form students have been focussing on the next steps in their careers journey, looking at the opportunities available to them beyond Caterham School. We have been delighted to welcome three exceptional external speakers to support our students in this investigation.  

Jane Marshall, former student recruitment lead at Imperial College and LSE, gave some great insight into how personal statements should be written alongside offering some examples of actual personal statements she had read!  

Robbie Pickles, Head of Undergraduate Recruitment at the University of Bath, talked us through why university might be a good route, how to approach your research and an update on how the current pandemic has effected the way prospective students can access universities in the absence of physical open days.  

Our final speaker was Emma Rosen, author of The Radical Sabbatical, who after graduating with a Masters in History from the University of Exeter and securing a job on the very competitive graduate programme with the Civil Service, realised she wasn’t following a path that made her happy. She made the brave decision to hand in her notice and spend a year working in roles she always thought she would like, before the ripe old age of 25. What was very interesting to see was the response from our students when asked what they wanted from a career: variety, making an impact, enjoyment, fulfilment, pushing boundaries, personal growth and my personal favourites, working in an environment of trust and respect and being around people that challenge what you  think.  

We also ran sessions on the application process, with students registering for UCAS and continuing with their research post–A Level through Unifrog, whilst Heads of Department ran some subject specific personal statement masterclasses. 

Monday afternoon also saw the return of 18 Old Cats, who left last summer and returned to talk about their experiences in the first year at university, taking a gap year or changing their minds after starting a course and discovering it was not the right one for them. This was such a great opportunity for our Lower Sixth Form to hear about different universities and the courses they offer, alongside the support that is available to them when things don’t go to plan.  

The Sixth Form Team hope that this was a valuable week and that students enjoyed all aspects of the programme.