Meet Alison Borrell, Assistant Head and Careers Lead at Willingdon Community School
This month we meet Alison Borrell, Associate Assistant Headteacher, Careers Leader and Head of Department of Technology & Enterprise at Willingdon Community School in East Sussex.
Can you tell us a bit about your role at the school Alison?
As Head of a large faculty, I can really help to drive careers across the department and with my role as Careers Lead I can reach out to all sorts of different local employers and establish strong links so that our students have the opportunity to experience first hand employer interactions within the classroom and workplace.
Already this term we have been able to give our students a variety of experiences including a workshop from the Executive Head Chef at the Grand to a trip around the Hastings Law courts.
Why do you think initiatives like this are so important?
Vocational talks and visits are so important because they open students’ eyes to the many opportunities out there, can spark interest in new areas and help students understand how their learning at school can help them in the future. All of this in turn inspires them to work harder and raises their aspirations.
Next year as well as offering Taster Days at local FE colleges, we are also looking at asking teachers from local sixth forms and colleges to give taster lessons on post 16 subjects that they might never have considered or had the option to do at school.
What else do you do to raise aspirations amongst your students?
We aim to give every student in our school the chance to interact with a university. The whole of Year 10 will be visiting the University of Sussex in December and we are taking students and their parents who would-be first-generation university students to the Open Day at Surrey University before going shopping in Guildford. It’s all about making experiences that might not have felt accessible, feel relevant and in reach.
What impact do these kinds of visits have?
Students always come away so inspired. Their eyes are opened to the truly fantastic opportunities out there and to the breadth of courses and facilities that universities have. By talking with a wide range of university students they’re also able to see that there isn’t just one type of student.
We are so grateful for the funding and support we get from SLN to run initiatives like this, because they are invaluable in challenging students’ perceptions and inspiring them to believe they could have a future in higher education
How do you involve parents in what you’re doing?
We hold an annual Parents’ Forum and invite local apprenticeship providers, sixth form schools and colleges to talk to parents about different progression pathways and what to expect from each. It’s a great way of opening parents’ eyes to the breadth of opportunities. We’ve also found it a useful way to engage with some of our harder to reach families. Parents value having the chance to talk with so many providers in a single, familiar setting.
Which initiative are you most proud of?
There are two that I’m particularly proud of. The first is that every student in Years 7-9 now receives seven weeks of Enterprise lessons each year. This is not something many other schools do, but is so important. It helps our students become familiar with the wide range of jobs available, develop employability skills and shows them how to effectively financially plan and budget.
The second is an initiative brought in by our Head Teacher in that we now employ ex students to become learning mentors in the school. They play an invaluable role – conducting research amongst our students to understand their future aspirations, running homework and STEM clubs and mentoring younger students.
What makes you so proud about this mentoring initiative?
It’s a real win-win programme. Our younger students respond very positively to the insights and advice they get from their older peers and often feel able to open up to them in a way they wouldn’t with teachers. And for our learning mentors it’s a great opportunity to develop valued employability skills such as leadership and communication skills.
What do you most enjoy about your role?
I love the fact that young people always have the capacity to surprise you. It makes the work challenging, but very rewarding. I also love knowing that what we’re doing across the school really does have the capacity to change lives. It’s a privilege to be able to say that about your work.
If you’d like to find out more about our work with schools and sixth form colleges you can read more here. Or you can get in touch directly with our Schools’ Liaison Programme Manager, Fay Lofty here.