This morning in assembly Head of UCAS, Mrs Warren, spoke to pupils about ‘squiggly careers’ and got them guessing as to what some of our the staff at Norwich School might have done before or since working at Norwich School…

“I have three primary school age children. Sometimes they talk about what they want to ‘be’ when they’re older. This ranges from reasonably credible suggestions to totally unrealistic ones – my middle son currently plans to be a professional footballer and cricketer playing for England at the same time as also playing rugby for Scotland (and we’re not Scottish!).

The reality is that most of you will be in paid employment for about 45 years. Technological advances and changes in society mean that it is unlikely that you will have one career, working in the same field for your whole working life as perhaps your parents and grandparents have done so. Further development of AI will mean that some current jobs are no longer needed whilst creating ones that don’t exist at present.

As well as teaching Biology here, I am Head of UCAS so support Norwich School sixth formers as they apply to university.

A phrase that I frequently hear on UCAS training events is ‘squiggly careers’ – this is the idea that most of your generation will move between different careers in your working lives. The idea is that you develop skills as you spend a number of years working in one field and then use these transferable skills whilst also developing new skills and acquiring new knowledge when you change to working in a different area. I’d like to encourage you to embrace this idea and explain what it might mean for you as you make decisions for your future in the next few years.

My own career to date hasn’t been particularly ‘squiggly’ – apart from one year out to row in the Commonwealth Regatta, I have loved being a secondary school teacher for just over 20 years. However, several other Norwich School staff have had more ‘squiggly’ careers – I wonder if you can work out who each of the following are. I also wonder if you can pick up links between each person’s various careers, seeing how they will have been able to transfer skills acquired in their earlier career(s) to their role now at Norwich School:

This teacher worked as a journalist, becoming a sub-editor for the Daily Telegraph. He then trained as a ski instructor then taught English in Italy before doing a History PhD. Now he is Head of History here …. Dr Cornell

After university, this teacher got a place on the John Lewis graduate training scheme. This trained them to do various management roles, including running the perfumery and cosmetics department of John Lewis Milton Keynes. They then transferred to the John Lewis IT graduate training scheme working as an IT analyst and programmer before becoming a Geography teacher with various other positions of responsibility …. Mr Hopgood

This teacher worked at the Met office after his Environmental Science degree but now teaches Maths and is Head of Valpy ….. Dr Richardson

Another teacher was a youth worker before having various roles at Aviva such as call centre manager and community affairs manager. They’re now one of your deputy heads…… Mr Rowlandson

This final one’s a member of support staff rather than a teacher; they worked at the Dorchester Hotel in London before working for Hugh Grant and Elizabeth Hurley’s film production company, living in Dallas and LA. They then came back to Norfolk and started their own PR and Marketing agency before becoming Director of Marketing and Communications at Norwich School….. Mrs Stevenson

There are others with squiggly careers who used to teach at Norwich School and have moved onto other careers after teaching:

Mr Watts was a city lawyer, then taught Politics here and is now an army chaplain.

After a couple of decades of teaching Maths and Sport, Mr Berwick converted several barns into holiday lets, doing almost all of the construction work himself and now manages the lettings.

An ON, Miss Turner, taught Geography here but now lives in Greece where she is executive director of the Ionian Environmental Foundation. She works with NGOs to balance economic development of the beautiful island Paxos with marine and land conservation.

So please don’t stress, thinking you need to pick one career for life now. Yes, you have to make decisions about your future – which GCSE options should I choose? which A level subjects? what work experience should I try and organise? what should I apply for after Norwich School?

But you are just picking options for the next step, you do not need to choose one career now and you may well have a ‘squiggly’ career that involves working in a number of sectors. So, make one decision at a time and I would recommend bearing in mind three things when you do so:

1) What do you enjoy?

2) What do you think you’re good at?

3) What do those who know you well recommend – your subject teachers, your close friends and your family

It’s exciting to think of what each of you will be doing in ten, twenty, thirty years time; I wish you all the best.