WCSQM Virtual Symposium 1st July 2021
World Class Futures
Unlocking Our Voice
Sponsored by
In partnership with
Welcome to the Symposium from the students of Sandringham School
A focus on the future
At our 2021 Virtual Symposium this summer we were looking to the future. The future of your staff as World Class practitioners, the future of your curriculum, the future of your students as World Class citizens.
We want to support your staff to look forwards, and rediscover why they love teaching. We want to support your students to explore again, their dreams, ambitions and aspirations. Your students have been in lockdown. Now we want them to unlock their voice.
Facilitating the transition from school to the workplace is not a new challenge for schools. But research suggests that, for students who have lived through the pandemic, this transition is where they are going to be most vulnerable.
For our virtual Symposium we partnered with World Class lead schools, careers advisory networks, top international employers, and the UK’s lead recruitment organisation, professional networking platform LinkedIn, to deliver presentations, open up debates, run competitions, answer questions and provide invaluable tips and advice from the experts. Read on for more information on contributors and their sessions, and you if there are any sessions you would like to see, you can request a link to access the session recording/s via the form below.
Symposium sessions included…
Insights from our event sponsors, Performance Learning
We have been looking for some innovative, ground-breaking research on whether there is really a learning gap and what to do if there is. Our event sponsors, World Class recommended Performance Learning, and their CEO, Tej Samani, have it. Tej shared an engaging and insightful keynote address, and delivered a brilliant session for Year 10 students, ‘5 Steps to Genius Mode’, on powerful and effective revision techniques to maximise exam success. (These sessions were only available live. Contact Performance Learning direct to arrange a session to help boost your students’ performance).
WCSQM Essay Competition 2021 – launched by Dan Freedman
We’re incredibly excited to be working with this year’s essay competition judge Dan Freedman, author of the hugely popular Jamie Johnson football novels and inspirational school speaker. For the competition launch at the Symposium, Dan was interviewed by the inspirational student winners of last year’s competition about his writing, his thoughts on the topic of this year’s essay writing question, and his time spent hanging out with Messi and Ronaldo on the World Cup tour in his role of Managing Editor for the English Football Association.
St Mary ‘s College, Hull delivering sessions on…
Soft skills in subject specialisms – the soft skills students need in specific subject areas and how we as World Class practitioners can support them in developing these.
World Class provision for health and social care pathways – a presentation on St Mary’s pioneering Medical Health and Social Care Academy.
Trinity College Cambridge students delivered a session on the characteristics needed to be a World Class undergraduate student, with a focus on reflective reading.
Premier Advisory Group present on the myriad benefits of DWP’s Kickstart Scheme for Schools
This unmissable presentation from Premier Advisory Group (PAG), an approved Kickstart Gateway, provided expert advice and practical guidance on how schools can take full advantage of the Department of Work and Pension’s (DWP’s) Kickstart Scheme. This flagship government programme enables schools and trusts of any size to hire fully funded additional staff for a period of six months. The DWP will also provide £1,500 per person employed to cover training expenses. One of the core aims of this much-needed initiative is, indeed, to equip young people with all the skills they need to enter an increasingly competitive job market with confidence.
The presentation was led by a team of experienced PAG consultants who have been actively and successfully engaging with the programme since its inception and will, by the time it has finished, have helped hundreds of schools to give meaningful work placements to thousands of young people. This is all the more valuable given the arduous circumstances in which young people are taking the first steps into the world of work.
The Kickstart Scheme has met with great success all over the country. At PAG, we are delighted and proud to play a significant role in this brilliant initiative, helping schools recruit for a variety of roles of paramount importance in the current educational landscape while boosting the careers of young people at risk of long-term unemployment.
- An overview of the top trending skills in the current workplace
- A careers panel aimed at KS4 students led by the ‘Big 4’ accounting firms
- ‘Rock your Profile’ – aimed at KS4 students – tips and advice on building and using your LinkedIn profile most effectively as a World Class students
- A session for primary and secondary students focusing on skills developed during lockdown
- A session for schools on building a LinkedIn profile capitalising on being World Class.
LinkedIn delivered free online sessions for World Class schools and students in the run-up to the Symposium on effective profile building. Visit the LinkedIn page for more information and to request a session recording.
Nick Chambers, CEO of Education and Employers, advises the government on careers’ education national policy. Nick delivered two sessions focused individually on primary and secondary schools. The primary school session examined the impact on children’s learning, motivation and aspirations of meeting role models from the world of work. For secondary schools Nick focused on the disconnect between young people’s career aspirations and the realities of the job market. (Request a copy of the video/s below)
A focus on positive mental health
A focus on positive mental health
from mental health public speaker Daniel Wilsher
In his video, 24-year-old Public Speaker, Company Director and Media Channel Founder Daniel Wilsher gives an overview of his journey and experiences through childhood trauma and his own personal battle with mental health. His 4-year struggle with depression and anxiety saw him drop out of university after 3 years in thousands of pounds worth of debt, struggling to maintain a job in the corporate world. He gives us an in-depth and inspiring insight into the importance of looking after our wellbeing, and how this relates to our ability to not only feel content, but to flourish both personally and professionally. (Request a copy of Daniel’s inspirational video below)
Daniel works with schools to raise awareness around mental health through inspirational talks and workshops for students across all year groups. Find out more about working with Daniel Wilshire to support student wellbeing in your school
World Class schools really have an impact on Careers education through integration of Careers curriculum areas – drawing the line or bridging the gap from isolated islands of careers education into where their learning can take them is vitally important. Embedding careers into all areas of school means that it is embedded into school culture and this is where real change and impact occurs. The TF Careers Network sessions (a session each for primary and secondary schools) focused on how Careers education can support young people through the difficult and uncertain post-COVID world they now live in.
WCSQM Virtual Awards Ceremony
For our virtual Awards Ceremony we celebrated the
- 2021 accrediting and re-accrediting World Class Schools
- World Class School of the Year 2020
- World Class Individual Student of the Year Awards for each of our six framework areas
- Qualifying Student Assessors
- Winner of the Talk-Off competition
Download the event press release for award details and a list of winners
Mobilising Your Voice
- The Talk-Off Competition – Sandringham School students hosted a debating competition, open to all participating schools, with the best, shortlisted speeches featured at the Symposium in front of a live panel of judges from LinkedIn, with the winner announced at the Awards Ceremony. (Request a video of this session to support World Class oracy lessons and competitions at your school)
- Unlocking your voice – World Class school students UK wide submitted a video on why they are World Class, beginning with ‘As a World Class student I am….’ Here are example videos. (More videos can be requested below).
The WCSQM Alumni Association Committee shared their experience of being involved, the benefits for their own personal and educational development, and exciting new committee roles available for World Class alumni students.
Watch the video and sign up to the Alumni Association.
Careers Education case study – secondary schools
St Albans Girls’ School and Hertfordshire Local Enterprise Partnership present on their World Class careers education partnership, giving tips and best practice advice to schools looking to develop an effective careers education programme in school.
Careers education case study – primary schools
Positive Footprints and Whitefield Primary School present on their collaboration to provide a World Class career-led learning programme for primary pupils.
The Life Skills Network – World Class Challenge
The Life Skills Network – a charity supporting the effective transition of students from education to the workplace, deliver an engaging presentation developed for teachers of World Class schools on teaching students how to spot scams
Click here for more information and to participate in The Life Skills Network World Class scams challenge
2021 Awards Ceremony - session recording/s request
World Class School staff and students can use this form to request a recording of any / all our 2021 Virtual Symposium sessions
