All three delivered insightful, heartfelt speeches about their career journeys since leaving us.

During her final year at Nottingham Trent University, Faeryn experienced a loss of interest for creating visual art, making her feel like a failure at such a critical point in her studies. This made her realise that her passion lay in becoming a writer instead, shifting her efforts into writing-based degree show and portfolio, leading to her being awarded a first-class degree.

Through leaving the logical and leaning into the obscure, Olivia discovered there was no problem she couldn’t find a solution to. Olivia also left our students with an invaluable tip for living outside of your comfort zone; “start with one small thing. Take something that would usually make you uncomfortable and do it consistently. The habit will develop and will ricochet across other areas of your life”.

Pam’s current role as a journalist for Operation Mobilisation was born out of a love of music and a desire to work in the industry at school, proving that if something excites you, you don’t always have to take the traditional path to get there.

At 13/14 years old, our Year 9s aren’t going to know exactly what they want to do with the rest of their lives, but the powerful message from today was that if you love something, stick at it. Stick with the people that encourage you, build you up. Don’t accept that something can’t be done until you’ve tried it.