Students at the Stephen Longfellow Academy were given the opportunity to undertake a range of work experience placements across June and July.
Work experience supports students to gain a better understanding of a career, learn new skills and gain experience of the world of work. Year 10 students were the target group for Work experience but for the first time the academy several Year 9 students were also offered mini experiences.
Year 9 work experience week took place across 15 – 19 June (1 Week) and Year 10 work experience weeks took place from 22 June to 3 July (2 weeks).
Students were given a choice of many different work placements to choose from. The work experience offer included both internal and external placements to ensure our student needs were met. The work experience placements can be seen below. Students were given the chance to undertake a range of activities on their placements as well as shadow staff members in their day to day working.
| EXTERNAL | INTERNAL | |
| Motor Vehicle | Site Maintenance | |
| Engineering | IT | |
| Retail | Admin | |
| Primary | Horticulture | |
| Admin | Primary | |
| IT | Catering | |
| Beauty | Sport | |
| 7 | 7 |
Students were prepared for their work experiences in form time through a work experience Power Point presentation delivered to them by form tutors and then selected the areas they would like to work in.
Across the three weeks there were 87 placements arranged for students. The placements ranged between 1-to-3-day placements. In total 65 placements were completed. This was an exceptional uptake of 75%.
For the Catering experience, students worked with Food Technology teachers, planning a lesson and supporting cooking for young students.
For the Site Maintenance experience, students shadowed the site team and undertook tasks such as replacing locks on doors, fixing shelves, tables, bookcases, putting up banners, furniture removal, sanding down wooden tables, painting and putting up a shed. For Horticulture, students worked with a member of staff to manage plants, help landscape the garden area and bed in new plants.
Within the Sport, students planned, set up and delivered a lesson to younger students, an example of their day can be seen below.
| SPORT ( Y10 Work Experience Day) | |
| Reg | Induction & session planning
Each pupil will plan 1 lesson phase to deliver to year 8: Warm-up Skill practice Conditioned game |
| P1 | Each pupil will deliver their planned activity to the year 8 class (max. 7 pupils):
Warm-up Skill practice Conditioned game |
| P2 | Feedback & Departmental Support
1. Mr Rushworth to feedback to each pupil on leadership session in preparation for P3&4. 2. Support TBI in the delivery of BTEC Sport practical lesson. |
| P3 | Each pupil will respond to feedback by delivering their same planned activity to year 9 class (max. 5 pupils):
Warm-up Skill practice Conditioned game |
| P4 | Each pupil will respond to feedback by delivering their same planned activity to year 9 class (max. 5 selected pupils):
Warm-up Skill practice Conditioned game |
For the Beauty experience, The Stephen Longfellow Academy worked in partnership with Beautylicious, a Salon in LS10. Students attended these two placements observing treatments and supporting the hair and beauty staff on site, they were also able to work on beauty mannequins applying some of the skills they had learned.
For the Retail experience, students worked in St Vincents Charity shop and were involved in the sorting of items and serving customers.
For the Childcare experience, students worked in the academy’s Primary Unit and across external Gorse Trust Primary schools. Tasks included: supporting younger children in the classroom, supporting at breaks and lunches and setting up basic activities, displays and shadowing teachers.
The Stephen Longfellow Academy offered a real variety of experiences for students, and some students experienced several different areas across the three weeks.
Building on last year’s work experience offer, several new placements were created for students this year, such as:
external Retail and Logistics placement with St Vincents charity shop
external Administration and IT placement at Keep Moat Construction.
Feedback from Employers
| SPORT ( Y10 Work Experience Day) | |
| Reg | Induction & session planning
Each pupil will plan 1 lesson phase to deliver to year 8: Warm-up Skill practice Conditioned game |
| P1 | Each pupil will deliver their planned activity to the year 8 class (max. 7 pupils):
Warm-up Skill practice Conditioned game |
| P2 | Feedback & Departmental Support
1. Mr Rushworth to feedback to each pupil on leadership session in preparation for P3&4. 2. Support TBI in the delivery of BTEC Sport practical lesson. |
| P3 | Each pupil will respond to feedback by delivering their same planned activity to year 9 class (max. 5 pupils):
Warm-up Skill practice Conditioned game |
| P4 | Each pupil will respond to feedback by delivering their same planned activity to year 9 class (max. 5 selected pupils):
Warm-up Skill practice Conditioned game |
Student Feedback Comments on work experience
| “Yeah, it was good, learned lots, but hard work in the heat.” K |
| “The people were nice on placement. Making houses, then selling them takes a lot of work”. S |
| “Can I do it again.” B |
| “I was welcomed, the people were nice and learned a lot about cars.” Z |
Every student who engaged in work experience completed their work experience booklet. There were sections for students to state what skills they had developed and also for staff to provide feedback. The booklet helped students highlight what skills they had learned and activities they undertook. The Careers department will support all students to add the recent work experience to their student CV’s in Year 11.
The work experience offer was a very positive programme for Year 10 students. All the students who engaged demonstrated positive behaviour. Students clearly benefited from the experiences and built confidence and skills for the future. The work experience weeks took place across some of the hottest weather in June & July, and students showed real resilience and determination to complete their tasks and placements.
For many students the placements have helped them make informed decisions about their future options and they have learned key skills on placement, which is evidenced in their work experience booklets.
Overall, our work experience weeks at The Stephen Longfellow Academy have been a real success and we intend to increase our offer next year with more employers and increase the duration of work placements further.
Raj Gill (Director of Careers)
