London calling for 6th form students

By Mary Fry ESBA reporter
Sixth form students from King Richard and St John’s schools recently spent four days in London familiarising themselves with work related learning activities.
In a break from the traditional work experience trips to London, this visit to the capital was designed to develop the students knowledge of higher education while maintaining a work experience element, all working towards paving the way of their future career paths, whether it be in employment or higher education.
With the demand of work experience places outnumbering supply, coupled with the unsteady economical climate, the decision was made to follow a programme similar to that used by St John’s last year, with the students visiting different universities and colleges within London.
Planning began as long ago as November 2009 and before students knew it, time had past and they were on their way to the UK to their accommodation at the University of Westminster halls of residence in Victoria, Central London. A bit of sightseeing was on the agenda for the first day and after only a few hours sleep the students made the short journey to Wellington Barracks, home of the Grenadier Guards and after a tour of the Guards’ Chapel and Museum, they were escorted to Buckingham Palace to watch the Changing of the Guards from the privileged position of inside the grounds.
From there, they moved on to Stratford and from the viewing platform on the 21st floor of a tower block, they had a bird’s eye view over the 2012 Olympic site. The day was rounded up with a dusk flight on the London Eye.
The next day was set aside for the students to visit a number of different locations in London to gain some work experience. The areas of employment that were offered differed immensely, with the vast majority of students working in the Metropolitan Police training wing - role playing for trainee officers. For anyone with an interest in drama and music, then what better place to get a real feel of it than the Coliseum Theatre, home of the English National Opera. That’s what three students did and they were rewarded with a backstage tour.
One student spent the day with the King’s Troop Royal Horse Artillery, while two others made their way out to Chalfont to spend time with BFBS and watched the production of an episode of British Forces News. The London Aquarium played host to one student interested in marine biology and for those not considering moving on to higher education they attended the Army Career Office and spent up to two days shadowing military officers at RAF Northolt.
With the majority of students studying A levels considering going on to university, the opportunity to visit these institutions to help them make better informed decisions on which type to opt for is increasingly important. During this four-day period the students got to see the University of Westminster, Essex University in Colchester, St Mary’s University in Twickenham and Queen Mary’s College in the East End of London, during which time they got fully engaged in a number of activities including sample classes, workshops, accommodation tours and a question and answer session.
Dennis Lawrence explained why such visits are vital to the student’s decision making: “Students are currently training for jobs that don’t yet exist, while others want to follow careers which will have disappeared by the time they finish their education. Their decisions are likely to change several times in their lifetime anyway so this trip hopefully will have developed their knowledge of higher education.”
Any down-time the students had was filled with trips to the theatre to see West End shows, Wicked, We Will Rock You in the Dominion Theatre, Sister Act at the London Palladium and Avenue Q at the Wyndham’s Theatre.
The sixth formers were given freedom to travel, live on a limited budget of £10 a day and find their own way around. But whilst Dennis was impressed with the students, but he was not surprised at how their levels of confidence and maturity developed over the week.

He said: “As in previous years they responded in style. If they got lost, they found their way. If they were running late, they still got to their destination on time and if they had a problem, they solved it.”
It seems, the group left Cyprus as sixth formers and returned as a group of young adults better prepared for life in the future.