Careers Week at Underley Garden!

We had a jam packed timetable for Careers Week this week, allowing all learners across site to access and participate in a variety of skills based activities as well as enjoying workshops on and offsite.

On Monday, the young people travelled to the British Thoroughbred Retraining Centre today, starting their Career’s week. The young people had a tour of the horses and learnt their names. The young people were then given the chance to complete yard tasks such as filling hay nets, mucking out and changing waters. The young people did a grand job! The young people brushed a specific horse and studied its hooves, learning about ‘the frog’.     The trip was rounded off with the young people watching a horse be ridden, lunged and long lined. The young people also witnessed the horse-walker in action before asking any questions they had! A ‘horsesome’ morning had by all!

Other learners attended an Employability Skills workshop ran by the Department of Working Pensions. Liz explained what was meant by employability skills and discussed with the learners the importance of finding out what they are good at and also what their interests may be, as this will help them in their chosen careers. They then played ‘skils’ Jenga, removing pieces which had a different skill on and discussing why this skill was important and how the learners already displayed actions showcasing this skill.  A great session with wonderful participation from our learners. 

Monday was completed by an ever-popular visit from PC Jackson from Cumbria Police.  She discussed the various roles available within Cumbria police, bringing with her, her Lego board as a visual to show all the agencies and the uniforms and equipment each job role required. She highlighted how the police work with a range of people to keep the public safe and how there are a range of employment types from volunteers to full time workers within the police sector. 

For Tuesday, classes enjoyed a variety of Live webinars from Blue Cross and Chester Zoo. These took the learners on a journey to explore the animal welfare sector and finding out what careers are needed to support a range of animals and pets. They shared top tips to get the learners started working with pets and for pet charities. 

Many thanks to the BTRC for accommodating our students. 

Most classes accessed the well-loved Role Play mini city sessions. The different workstations included Construction, a Florist, Cafe, Science centre, a Post Office, Supermarket and a Nursery. This was a huge hit which allowed the pupils to be creative in their interpretation of a workplace. The sessions were filled with exploration and play from both Underley Garden pupils and also pupils visiting from Oakfield School! 

Other learners took part in a community initiative to clean up their local area. They visited Morecambe to participate in a Litter picking activity. Learners enjoyed chatting with the public, wearing their PPE and cleaning up the local spot.  One staff member said ‘I am so proud of how well pupil did during this activity! All were engaged and we must have collected round 10 bags of litter!’

Wednesday saw a visit from Tony and Neil, from Kendal Mountain Search and Rescue, who are both volunteers. They presented to Underley pupils and Oakfield School pupils. They explained they manage a variety of different scenarios from First Aid, Animal rescues and snow crises.  They shared the training programme which enables you to become involved with the service and what equipment you will need to carry to help you carry out your role as well as discussing how to stay safe when out and about In the different terrains. This session brought a lot of good questions from the pupils including, ‘ What do you look for in a team member?’. 

Learners then had the opportunity to ‘rescue’ a staff member outside by carefully constructed a stretcher and working as a team, communicating well, to bring her to safety. This was a fantastic activity and the causality was saved!

Thursday saw the return of Orchard Street! A brilliant onsite look into a range of workplaces, staged by our wonderful staff. This year saw a Bakery, Science Lab, Florist, Salon and a Road Safety session. Pupils from both Underley and Oakfield explored the different activities in each area, showcases the uniforms you would wear, the textures you would manage and allowed the learners to respond to a variety of stimuli related to each workplace. This is a fantastic day, allowing our learners to be creative and investigate different environments! These opportunities were shared with visiting pupils from Oakfield, who engaged really well. 

Childnet also visited school to present and engage the learners in Online Safety, adding a really important element of cross curricular learning in a world where each workplace requires significant input from digital items. Charlie held adapted learning sessions for all learners looking at how to stay safe, what information to share and the importance of the digital footprint for employers. Some learners enjoyed their session so much, they joined onto addition sessions. 

Charlie from Childnet fedback a Thank you for a warm and welcoming environment and that ‘all of our learners engaged really well with the topics, and he hoped that they enjoyed them’. 

Friday brought the end of Careers week was as busy as could be with a second trip to the British Thoroughbred Retraining Centre and another litter picking activity. 

Kendal College Construction team also came.  The young people had a great time attending a presentation. They learned about the different opportunities available at Kendal College and the qualifications students can work towards. After the presentation, the young people had the chance to ask lots of questions before heading outside for a practical activity. The construction team gave a demonstration showing how to build using bricks and mortar. Everyone then had the opportunity to have a go themselves, using bricks and mortar to try out their new skills whilst modelling construction gear, including high-visibility vests and a heavy-duty coat! This was a VERY popular session which was enjoyed greatly by our students and visiting learners from Waterloo School. 

The last session of the day was held by the Careers Lead and our visiting Futures Advisor, Sakhara. The workshop was used to build confidence and also let learners know that though they feel they may not be able to work in certain sectors due to qualifications, that most workplaces have a range of roles within them, many achievable to all! The learners engaged brilliantly with this session, discovering an additional 34 roles within a football stadium which did not require them to be a footballer and over 50 roles within an airport which did not require them to be a Pilot!

Overall, an AWESOME week for Careers week. The engagement of staff and learners has been fantastic and lots of fun and learning has been had!!

It has been lovely to be able to invite pupils from other schools in to enjoy the activities and share the opportunities with them. They were exceptional with their engagement and enthusiasm, consider this was an unfamiliar environment!. 

A huge Thank you to all who attended or facilitated sessions so our learners can continue to build their skills and consider their future.