A demonstration of World Class commitment
In 2019, Jack Kennedy, a Year 12 student at St Cuthbert’s Catholic High School in Newcastle, worked as part of a team made up of World Class peers from his own school and from other accrediting schools around the country, to take part in and successfully pass the WCSQM Assessment Centre, hosted by UTC Reading.
Since impressing our assessors with his outstanding communication and project management skills in October 2019, Jack has gone on to demonstrate a World Class commitment to developing opportunities for not only himself, but for all the students and staff in his school, and for World Class students everywhere.
Immediately after discovering he had passed the assessment centre, Jack joined the WCSQM Alumni Association, and within weeks he joined the brilliant team of students that form our Alumni Association Committee, with whom he works hard to develop and promote opportunities for the 500+ World Class alumni students in the network.
2021 Virtual Assessment Centre in partnership with St Cuthbert’s Catholic High School
Jack returned from his own Assessment Centre experience in 2019 inspired to bring to his school the opportunity to host some of the brightest, World Class students from the best non-selective state schools around the country, to work collectively on a real-life project to improve their school infrastructure for the benefit of their students.
Jack and his support team, including Assistant Headteacher Mr Rogers, and World Class students including Alfie Jones, Year 8 (pictured right with Mr Rogers receiving his WCSQM commendation for his video presenting skills), and James Vincent, Year 13, have created an engaging real-life work project complete with videos and online tutorials, for our accrediting students to get stuck into.
In light of the Covid-19 restrictions, the assessment centre in 2021 is taking place virtually, over a longer period, with 90 participating students from 13 secondaries and 9 primaries UK wide collaborating online to complete the project before the 11th June deadline. They will be supported by industry experts from a range of sectors – government, environmental, financial, construction and education, as well as by a dedicated team of Year 12 St Cuthbert’s Catholic High School student advisers and their student assessors who will be monitoring and assessing their work throughout the project.
An important opportunity for students
Despite, and perhaps partly because of the challenges schools have faced in recent months, we’re confident this will be our best Assessment Centre yet, giving students the opportunity to develop their teamworking skills, innovative thinking and creativity on a real-time work experience project outside of a typical classroom environment.
The student-led virtual assessment process, consisting of the assessment centre project and the creation of a self-audit video, has been welcomed by accrediting schools keen to give students the opportunity to enhance their skills and open up their world beyond their locality, at a time when so many initiatives for students are restricted.
“Along with the amazing experience it also showed us that although we unfortunately find ourselves in worrying times, we were able as a team to come together through online meetings, to not only show off a school that we love and are proud of, but also support each other through a new project that allows us to celebrate something. In this case it was our school, something that brings us all together and brings us joy. Therefore, I am not only extremely thankful for this opportunity on behalf of my team, but we are also extremely proud that we have finally been able to portray our school in the way it deserves to be seen.” Mariam Alowaud, St Anne’s Catholic High School, London
Meet the Teams
90 students from 22 primary and secondary schools UK wide are working collaboratively in teams to complete their project.
Visit the WCSQM Assessment Teams page to meet the teams
Meet our World Class student assessors
The WCSQM assessment process is led by students, supported by the WCSQM Assessment Management team. For our 2021 virtual assessment centre we’re very proud to be working with 42 World Class student shadow assessors from primary and secondary schools UK wide, who will be monitoring, reviewing, and reporting on the work of the 90 participating students working in teams to achieve WCSQM accreditation for their school.
Our 42 student shadow assessors will be supported throughout the process by a team of 8 World Class student Qualified Assessors, all of whom have successfully undergone the assessment process as part of their schools’ application process, and also successfully completed the process as a WCSQM shadow assessor.
Visit our 2021 Student Assessor profile page to meet our brilliant team of assessors.
Meet the World Class St Cuthbert’s Student Advisers
To support students with their project, giving them insight into the values and ethos of the school, St Cuthbert’s Catholic High School chose eight of their Wold Class students to act as student advisers for each of the eight participating teams.
Visit our Student Adviser profile page to meet them
Meet the WCSQM Expert Consultants
Every student participating in the assessment centre takes on at least one role within their project team to help them work to and develop their skills, within a real-life work scenario. Students are supported by a panel of consultants, all experts in their field, available to support, guide and advise students to help them get the most out of the experience.
Visit our WCSQM Consultants Profile page to meet our team of consultants
WCSQM would like to extend our warm thanks to our World Class suppliers Aspens Services, Camps International and Lytle Associates, and our partner charity Less CO2 for volunteering their support as our industry experts on the day.
