Our Year 7 students have fortnightly enrichment lessons as part of their curriculum and have been working on SAIL presentations. So, what does SAIL mean?
Student
Agency
In
Learning
What does the word AGENCY mean? It is your capacity to take control of your life and life plans, and to be able to reflect on, and change, how your life plans are progressing.
Enrichment lessons involved
- Learning what a goal is
- Learning how to break down a long-term goal into mini-goals
- Researching potential careers
- Creating your Ultimate Goal and a plan to achieve it
At the beginning of the term the whole of Year 7 were informed they would be giving a presentation to an audience. At the time, this was quite a big deal for the majority of our students, as it was something that would place a number of them out of their comfort zone. Mr MacDonald coordinates the Enrichment Programme and has been with them from the start in September.
The aim of the presentation was to raise their confidence and enable them to improve on their communication skills. A number of the students found the process to be quite challenging and for others, it became obvious they were natural presenters. This was fantastic in many ways and at Northgate High School; we always encourage our students to do the best they can. This was the ideal presentation for them to work on as the topic was about their future.
Students had to identify what their chosen career might be in addition, what is their ultimate goal. It was made clear that what they identify may not be what they do in the future as things can always change. The idea however, was to conduct research into the world of work and understand how hard they have to work to get there. An explanation of the ultimate goal process was given during a number of lessons, prior to the presentation being delivered. An example of this was broken down into mini goals ahead of reaching their ultimate goal. Students were excited to being given the opportunity to show off their presentation skills to their parents and their Form Tutors. Mr MacDonald was very proud of their efforts, knowing that for some it was the first time they had ever done this.
The range of career choices were amazing! Pilots, hairdressers, You – Tubers, Finance, teachers, lawyers, NHS and many more. The goals too were also very inspiring, ‘my goal is to make many people better, have my own business, and be a millionaire.’ This has truly been a wonderful project for our students!
It was clear that a number of students initially were nervous about presenting as they had stated in their reviews. This changed once they completed a follow up exercise to explain how they felt and what they had understood about their goal setting.
A selection of student’s goals and thoughts:
Holy 7JB – I would love to be a Midwife in the future and this is my ultimate goal.
Theo 7JD – I love animals and I would love to join the police and become a dog handler, this is my ultimate goal.
Lilah 7JB – I was nervous leading up to my presentation, I just got on with it in the end it was great! I want to travel the world this is my ultimate goal.
Annabelle 7VE – I was nervous when told we were doing a presentation, but I overcame my worries. I want to be an actor this is my ultimate goal.
Zak 7DNI – I was not too happy about doing the presentation, but it was fine in the end. I want to be on stage dancing and become a ballet dancer, this is my ultimate goal.
Layla 7RH – I was nervous at the prospect of doing my presentation, but I rose to the challenge. I want to be a teacher and this is my ultimate goal.
Imogen 7VE – I was looking forward to the presentation, although like others I was nervous. I want to run the London Marathon in the future and this is my ultimate goal.
Jacy 7RP – It was a scary thinking about the presentation but it went well in the end. If I work hard hopefully, to become a football player, this is my ultimate goal.
Jasmine 7JD – I was nervous too before my presentation but I did it. I want improve my football and be comfortable around animals, this is my ultimate goal.
Anitt 7MM – I am so excited about doing my presentation; I work on it during break and lunch. My ultimate is to complete this presentation in front of my parents and make them proud.
A student’s thoughts – When I first arrived to Northgate High school one of the first things I saw on my timetable was “enrichment” At first, I thought this was unusual and I was very excited to discover what the class was all about. As the weeks passed and we had all settled into our classes, enrichment was a lesson to look forward to. Mr MacDonald explained in October that we would be giving our presentations to an audience. We would have use of the library and the computing rooms to prepare. The presentation was to identify our chosen career and to understand our ultimate goal. At the time, I was very nervous and thought that I would not possibly do this in front of my parents or teacher. Now that I have, completed my presentation I now know that I was worried about absolutely nothing, it went amazing!
Northgate News Team members, Isla and Georgina, tell us about their experience:
Isla: ‘For my SAIL presentation, I had to write about my future career and ultimate goal. For my career, I chose to be an actor. It has been a dream of mine for as long as I can remember. Making the presentation wasn’t too challenging. I really enjoyed being left to choose it all by myself. It really helped me learn new things and helped me research what was needed. My ultimate goal was to travel and learn a new language. When I was presenting, I was really nervous. I had to show off the presentation with no idea on what to say! Personally, I think it went splendidly. I was so proud of myself for speaking about what and how I was going to continue going about my further education and life. I researched things on how much i would be paid and if i need to learn to sing and dance etc. I am now in the drama club after school and starring in my second production! I cannot wait to continue to make massive progress in hope for the future of my dreams!’
Georgina: ‘I wrote mine about being a Neuropsychologist. We spent our Enrichment lessons writing it. We were then taken out of one lesson on a certain day for 15 minutes to do it in front of our parents and careers or if we didn’t have anyone to come for us we had someone else. Afterwards we talked for a while about the job we wanted etc. it was very nice and calm.’
Mrs Harris, Year 7 tutor, comments, ‘It was an eye-opening day that allowed me to not only hear all about my tutor group’s aspirations but also meant I could spend some time with them amongst their family and friends. It was lovely to see some of their parents so proud of their children! A highlight for me was learning all about how Mason wanted to start a frog selling business.’
Mrs Nimmock, Year 7 tutor, said, ‘The presentations that I saw were really interesting. It was great to have an insight into the goals and ambitions of my tutees. I feel I know them so much better now and look forward to seeing them work towards their goals.’
