Former LGS Head Boy, Leon, has experienced first-hand the tailored post-18 support offered to LGS pupils who are actively thinking about their next steps. Leon reflects on how the School helped to make an often-overwhelming process seem manageable and achievable.
Now in his third year at university, and an LGS alum, Leon is able to consider how influential the post-18 support and advice he received and the connections he made whilst studying at LGS have been to his university career so far.
What post-18 support did you receive from the school whilst applying for university?
We had career aptitude tests to start with; you would essentially fill in a questionnaire and it might advise certain career paths that might suit your characteristics. From there, we were encouraged to make sure that the decision was truly ours and to ignore external pressures. All the necessary information was given to us so that we definitely knew what we were doing, and decisions weren’t just based on a hunch.
How did the school make the process of choosing a post-18 route seem less overwhelming?
I think the post-18 process can seem quite daunting, but I think the School was really good at breaking it down. You weren’t thinking of it necessarily as a big procedure, but you were taking it one step at a time. First just making your mind up as to what you want to do, then understanding the UCAS process before you actually engaged in it.
Also, we were given post-18 support to consider routes other than university because not everybody necessarily wants to do that, so being aware that even if you weren’t going to university the routes to doing so were explained clearly and it wasn’t a scary process.
Please could you name three character traits that you developed during your time at LGS.
I would say leadership, definitely. I would say resilience and a well-rounded world view.
Which of those character traits do you think have been most influential to success at university?
I think that leadership is really beneficial in terms of going beyond just your degree itself. If you think about employability, perhaps all the extra things you can do to add on to your degree to make you more employable. I think leadership helps in those regards because highlighting examples of when you’ve been in leadership positions looks quite good to employers. I think leadership skills can also translate into a willingness to kind of step out of your comfort zone and be the first person to do something as opposed to the last.
I think resilience is essential at any stage in life, especially when you go to university. It’s perhaps a first time away from home, you’re meeting people from all avenues of life and I think that can generally be challenging. I think resilience is good in terms of making sure that you know how to handle challenges and when things go wrong, which undoubtedly they will, that you know you can keep on moving and focusing on your goals.
Looking back on your time at LGS, is there any advice from that time that you’ve found most valuable since leaving LGS?
I remember being told, told this by several members of staff at different points, the idea that you should ‘control the controllables’. Generally, in life, you can sort your problems into those you can control and those you can’t control. Ultimately, you should try and find a way to not become too emotionally attached to the things that fall into the ‘uncontrollables’ as there’s not much you can do about it.
The things you do have control over should be the things where you put the effort in so you don’t stress over the things that you can’t control and the things that you should perhaps stress a little bit about, and put some thought into, is where your effort goes. I think that was really good advice because it just helps you when things get a little bit overwhelming.
Have you had the opportunity to stay connected with the School after leaving LGS?
Definitely. I think it’s something that people should absolutely engage in. Personally, I’ve tried to stay connected to the School and I’ve found that the School can be really helpful. I’m a Law student and, as you can imagine, experience matters a lot in getting a Law career; LGS has really helped in terms of connecting me with people and allowing me to have experiences that can build onto my CV.
With the teachers and the staff at the School, that’s a connection that you’ve built throughout your whole time at LGS and that doesn’t necessarily have to stop the moment you leave or graduate. So, the fact that I was able to come back, speak to staff members that I knew and who were able to help me if they could, I found it really, really beneficial.
