This years Activities Fortnight was a busy one for our Year 12s. The students have been involved in subject workshops, higher education talks, personal development workshops and career talks.

We are extremely grateful to those alumni who gave up their time to come 'back to school' and talk to the students about their life post-Pate's. Four members of the Class of 2022 talked about their gap year experiences either in person or as a recorded video - three of the four never actually intended on taking a gap year! Zuhayr Shaik, Charlie Bailey, Leo May and Sophie O'Riordan all had positive experiences working close to home with Charlie, Leo and Sophie then having incredible adventures travelling and volunteering abroad (with Workaway offering particularly rewarding opportunities). We wish them well for their next step in September as they all head off to their first choice universities.

We were very happy to welcome back Laura Winter (Class of 2007) who was guest speaker at the annual Sports Celebration Evening. Laura is a leading female sports broadcaster across numerous sports - she came fresh from commentating at Henley Regatta and was shortly heading off to go in front of the camera at the British GP at Silverstone. Laura talked about her time at Pate's, her love of sport and her impressive career to date - it was fabulous to have her support this special event.

Simon Wilton (Class of 1985), gave a very engaging talk about his career as a barrister and life at the Bar. The students came away with the knowledge that life as a barrister means that you can create your own career, that every day of legal practice has the potential to be fascinating, that there are always puzzles to be solved, that there is a great deal of human interest and if you like arguing then it's the career for you!

Class of 2022 members Ella Hung and Shefali Fernandes each gave informative talks about their experiences as first years at university. Ella is at Edinburgh studying Architecture and Shefali at Bristol studying medicine. It's appreciated that although the quality and suitability of each individual course are top factors for choosing where to go to uni, the location and transport links really do need to be considered carefully - happily Ella is loving her time in Scotland but the trips back home are not too frequent when its around 7 hours each way! It was particulary useful that Ella shared a week in her study timetable, which showed how the combination of elements of study fitted together - lectures (online and in person), workshops, tutorials and design studio days. Shefali talked about applying for medicine, university life including student roles and getting involved, the medicine exam timetable for the first year and accommodation, travel and fun in Bristol!

Ethan Adams gave a super talk about his life as an undergraduate Engineer with the Dyson Institute of Engineering and Technology. He talked in detail about the logistics of his degree apprenticeship (currrently two days of study, labs and lectures and three days of working); the accommodation (onsite living for the first year looks fantastic!); and the fact that after four years apprentices come out with work experience, a degree and no debt! We were left in no doubt that as a student with the Institure you would be very well supported.

The final one of our alumni speakers was Maisie Ainsworth (Class of 2016) who gave us a real insight into her life on the Marks & Spencer Enterprise Scheme. Highly competitive to get on to (there were 4,000 applicants who were rigorously assessed to see some successfully progress onto the scheme after the intial online application using video, online testing and then assessment centre), Maisie is having a fabulous time getting the chance to try a variety of roles and work in a controlled environment. You can read more about Maisie's story with Marks & Spencers on the Careers page.

If you feel that you would like to connect with our students and support the school by giving a careers talk either in person or on Teams / Zoom, please email us development@patesgs.org