This week it’s careers week in school!

We started first thing on Monday with a visit from Karan Bamber from Runshaw College who talked to the learners about life at Runshaw and what it would be like if that was the college they chose to go to.

After this, Lee from the DWP came in the talk to us about the future and what we may need in the future. We started the session of with some icebreakers, where we talked about our favourite superheroes and foods as well as our proudest moments and when we’ve felt to most brave.

In the afternoon we did some work for our ASDAN by making an independent walking journey to Devonshire rec park. We took it in turns to cross the road at the zebra crossing and walk up to the park, being shadowed by members of staff along the way

On Tuesday we had a visit from Callum and Sam, Astley Park alumni who go to Newman college. They came to talk to us about life at college and what it’s like and the sort of things you can learn and do at Newman college.

After this we had Allison from the Careers Enterprise Company (?) who came to talk us about enterprise and what this can entail when making your own money. As an example of enterprise we all had a go at making our own charms; we started out by designing our bag charm, deciding what we want to use and what colours to choose and then we made them.

On Wednesday morning we had another Astley Park alumni come to visit us, Stuart, who came to talk all about what he’s been up to since leaving Astley Park. We learnt that he went to college and now he works at Morrisons and co-owns The Fat Olive restaurant in Wigan. He talked all about how hard he’s worked and that if you try your best you can do whatever you put your mind to. One of our learners, Lola, went out for some work experience to Embellished by Emily’s hair salon, where she got to do some of the things hairdressers would do; as well as helping wash hair and use foils she also helped tidy up and reorganise stock.

In the afternoon some of us were learning about other careers and the kinds of skills and qualities you would to do those jobs. We learnt that there were lots of skills and qualities you would need for all different kinds of jobs, things like being friendly, having good teamwork skills and being good at communication. Tig and Chris went out with Mrs Cobham to work at Lisieux Hall, using computers to learn how to make podcasts.

On Thursday morning we had Sian from Telent come visit us, where she was teaching us what makes a good interview and how to make a good impression on people, including how to dress. We then talked about the types of jobs you can get depending on the kinds of things you like to do.

After Sian we had her colleague Gary come in; he talked about his job as a trainer in highway maintenance and talked about how lots of his jobs involve work behind the scenes e.g. fixing motorway signs, train and underground signs, coast guard radios etc… Gary now teaches health and safety to new people as lots of these jobs, especially on the motorway can be very dangerous.

He talked to us about how important good moving and handling can be and we all got to have a go at picking up a box and everyone showed they had done some good listening when they knew how to pick it up and put it down safely. At the end of the session, Gary had a Kahoot for us to take part in where we got to see what we had learned. Everyone did a really good job and a big well done to Tig who won!

In the afternoon Lola went out for her second session at the hair salon where she got to wash Miss Carters hair and have a go at painting nails. Everyone else in class continued with parenting awareness where we learnt all about how having a baby affects the parents as well as learning how to bath a baby safely.

On Friday morning we had John Kelly, from Bosch, come in the talk about how having a good work ethic is really important no matter what job you have. We learnt that you should always try your best and that you don’t always have to be learning new things if you’re getting better at things you already know.

After this Kerry from Lowther Pavillion came to talk about what the theatre is and about all the different jobs that you can have there. We talked about what being creative is and how each of us is creative in our own ways. We then had a chance to dress up and create a scene from a pantomime that we thought would be fun. Everyone got really involved with this and looked great in their costumes.

In the afternoon we had a golden time and then celebration assembly where this week Oscar was our star of the week for some brilliant work in his workstation.

A big thank you to all of our visitors this week, we’ve all really enjoyed having everyone in and learning lots of new things!

Mrs Powell, Mrs Price, Mrs Cobham, Miss Carter and Miss Wilkins.

10P spring 2 week 2