Cleethorpes Academy host first ever Progression Evening

Last week saw Cleethorpes Academy welcome further and higher education providers, as well as development coaches, careers advisors, curriculum staff and many more at their first ever Progression Evening.

The event aimed at getting students to start thinking about how they can ensure they are successful with their GCSEs and to start preparing themselves for what they want to do once they start their post-16 roles, whether that be in college, an apprenticeship or employment.

The academy, which is part of the newly rebranded Lincolnshire Gateway Academies Trust, provided students from Years 10 and 11 with an abundance of opportunities and food for thought with stalls advertising for local and regional colleges, apprenticeship providers, universities, local training academies. The evening also saw curriculum leaders from the academy talking to students about their courses and how to achieve their best results.

The evening was a huge success as they welcomed a host of different providers to the school to help students decide what they need to do to excel in their chosen further studies and future careers. Lots of businesses also joined the stall holders to promote their training schemes and apprenticeships. Throughout the evening, students were looking into what they would like to do once they leave school in 2023. They had lots of opportunity to speak to representatives from all different kinds of further and higher education and career development. There were also representatives from mental health care and mental health support services to advise the students on what they can offer.

Olivia Gray said, “I’m interested in looking at different law courses. This is a great event for me to find out what my options are. So far, I’ve spoken to Franklin Sixth Form College, Grimsby Institute and the Bishop Grosseteste University reps!”

Olivia Hemstock said, “It’s good that school has organised this event as it’s better than having to travel to each site to find out what’s on offer.” Olivia’s mum, Victoria Maddison, said that “This event is really good for parents to come to. When students transition from primary to secondary school, parents tend to get less information other than what Olivia tells me, so this is great to see what the school is like and how they’re helping the students to achieve what they need to further their education.”

Holly Rowntree said, “I’ve spoken to mostly Franklin and Grimsby Institute and wanted to approach my teachers for advice on my revision. I think this event has given me the opportunity to see the different places on offer and has helped me to understand what sort of grades I need.” Holly’s mum, Lisa, said that “Holly is interested in Psychology and Health and Social Care so we’ve found that she may benefit from considering a science course alongside those such as biology to help broaden her career choices.”

There were a wide range of colleges, sixth forms and Universities in attendance at the event, and for young people like Alesha Jones, they provided the advice and guidance that will help them get to where they want to be. Alesha said, “I’m interested in social care. I had a long chat with the School Nursing Service and they helped me figure out what college I need to get to and what work experience would be helpful. They suggested that I look into some community service in the summer to help my applications in the future.”

Rhiannon Turner and Leanne Saunders from the School Nursing Service said, “There are lots of students in here who are interested in a career in nursing. It’s really good to get them at this age and great to see the parents here too to help them engage more.”

Beckie Suddaby from Grimsby Institute offered some guidance to Tegan Kinnaird and Erin Sinclair. Teegan is interested in the beauty industry and found that there are a lot of care elements needed for those kinds of careers. Beckie explained that their courses offer a different way of learning with lots of trips, work placement and an on-site salon. Erin is interested in photography, so Beckie gave advice on the college facilities including the benefit of a dark room and her best advice would be to visit the site on Open Events and meet the teams who work and study on the course.

For those students who are looking into apprenticeships, there were providers from HETA, myenergi, CATCH, Humber Maritime College and many more! Isaac Morrison said, “I want to become a lorry driver so I have spoken to lots of people about that. I spoke to myenergi, who are a company dealing in renewable energy and HETA offer engineering apprenticeships.”

Many students are still unsure of what they would like to do when they leave secondary school, however this event is one of the first steps that many of them will take into ensuring they have a clearer idea when they receive their exam results next year. We asked some parents about the event and how they felt to be invited to the events along with their children. Sam Griggs said: “I think this event is a really good idea. It gives more insight into what they need to look towards and what to aim for. There is a nice range of ideas here and we’ve spoken to a lot of people.”

For many students, the event was an opening to other ideas about their future. The National Horse Racing College was represented by Amelia Williams who said, “I tend to visit a lot of secondary schools and students are always keen. It’s great to see them so open minded and that a lot are keeping their options open. Our college is so specialised that it gives young people another option and these events give us a great opportunity to recruit. We just want to let people know what’s out there in the world of horse racing, as it’s the 10^th biggest employer in the UK and it’s not very well known what a wide range of options there are when it comes to horse racing.”

Some providers stated that the event was an opportunity to present new ideas to young people and broaden their understanding of what it is they want to do in the future. Julie Hudson, representative for Humber Maritime College said, “You find that there is always an interest in engineering apprenticeships, however once we tell people about the navigation side, they tend to look into both as options and we’re seeing an increasing number of people choosing to enrol on our navigation training courses.”