Life ready, Stephen Mullock and Tessa Teichert

Life ready Stephen Mullock and Tessa Teichert share Ellesmere College’s positive philosophy

The philosophy of Ellesmere College is focused on individual success and only individual success. As a non-selective school, we look for pupils who are keen to try new things and not afraid of failure; but where opportunities and experiences are intrinsically linked with a positive outcome from the learning journey. The support of individuals is not just limited to those within the student community but extends to a wider range of intern placements. Every year we offer a number of key positions in the College for interns, catering for a wide variety of skills and subject areas of expertise. This academic year we will welcome interns as Arts Centre Manager, Sport intern, Music intern and IT intern, whilst we are currently looking for a Marketing/Media intern. These interns will be midway through their own degree or about to start their degree programme. We recently hosted a young German, Tessa Teichert, as an intern Marketing Assistant, and this is what she wrote when she left.

My name is Tessa Teichert. I am 18 years old and currently attend a school in Germany which is oriented towards business and which also takes the foreign language aspect into account. I have always wanted to do an intership abroad and having now spent 4 weeks in the UK at Ellesmere College in Shropshire, I realise how good an experience it has been for me.

Due to many extremely positive reports from friends from Germany who attended Ellesmere College to Study both IB and A level, and also from a dear friend from Birmingham, who was Head Girl there, and who has just completed her medical degree

and is now a Junior Doctor, I decided to send an application for an internship abroad to this awesome College.

I arrived full of anticipation and excitement, and what I experienced more than exceeded all my expectations. The marketing team had put a lot of effort into creating an extensive plan to make the best use of the time available to me. This gave me a deep insight into the dedication with which people work behind the scenes at Ellesmere College. Internet presence, publicity flyers, current reports of events, accompanying students on expeditions, photos and many contacts with staff and pupils not only improved my English, but the daily routine and the spontaneous work crises improved my understanding of business activities.

With the continued support of the team and their trust in my ability, I had the opportunity to complete many different tasks, which helped me to be more independent than I was previously. I was talking to publishers about deadlines and media packs, speaking with agents about the College in general and working on the daily Social Media feeds, uploading images on Facebook and Twitter to showcase the very busy and active school to a very engaged school community.

The interviews with students showed me how special and unique Ellesmere College is. Ellesmere College gave me a wonderful insight of the student’s life in my last week, when I accompanied the students on expeditions. Not only did I visit great cities like Chester and Liverpool, I also saw laughing students and happy faces as they learned new skills and adapted to new environments - all part of the Ellesmere educational offer.

Knowing that a temporary internship involves a lot of organization and work, I am especially grateful that Ellesmere College offered me this extraordinary opportunity. I must especially thank all those responsible for letting me experience an unforgettable time, which will certainly be of considerable use to me for my professional career, and has also shaped me personally. I was able to get to know many nice and helpful people who welcomed and supported me with open arms.

As a student you can feel very comfortable in this place and experience support and encouragement in a wonderful atmosphere. As a co-worker you can experience how beautiful a co-operative and functioning team can be and what it can achieve.

Unfortunately, my time is now over, but I have learned a lot in these four weeks and I will take everything with me for my future. Not only I have become more self-confident and independent, I also have gained better language skills in English. Moreover, I was able to experience the normal and great working life at Ellesmere College and it was and has been an unforgettable time for me which I will never forget.

I thank everyone very much and can only encourage everyone - whether as a pupil or future employee - to let themselves be captured by the Spirit of Ellesmere.

Special thanks to Rachel and Stephen - I will certainly come back. It was a wonderful time.

Your Tessa

In today’s world, guidance and recommendations are always valuable. Throughout the year we run a regular programme of visits from Old Ellesmerians to show our pupils the variety of career pathways and platforms from which they may choose, and to discuss their own career routes, what they did and how it helped. OEs have described working for NASA or for top Investment firms such as City Bank, as well as Green Technologies in the automotive industry. Not only do they open the eyes of the pupils but they can frequently offer mentoring and some wonderful work experience opportunities.

As an international boarding school, we have established links in a wide variety of countries and markets. The German market is very keen on schools offering a wide variety of the co-curricular opportunities that add so much to development of the pupil, as well as academic excellence. So, for instance, the sports academies we run have proved very popular and students often come to study the IB or A levels combined with our successful Tennis and Football programmes.

We devote two afternoons a week to sport and leadership opportunities that help to develop and support the growth of a student’s ‘softer’ skills. In terms of employability, these are just as important as the academic grades, and together they fulfil the College mantra of ‘Life Ready’. Leadership on the sports field is matched by participation in DofE, First Aid or CCF, or acquiring ILM Level 3 management qualifications.

The broader horizon helps to show pupils what is available and the platform we provide enables all pupils to make informed choices about what to do next. Many will pursue the University route, but look at four-year courses with an integral placement year. Others will use their Ellesmere contacts to undertake a year in industry before embarking on the next stage of their education. This year, one of our elite swimmers will be deferring her University place to concentrate on the 2020 Olympics in which she will be a member of team GB.

One of the great delights as a teacher at Ellesmere is to see the wide range of specialism and interest that the pupils go into and follow, the confidence to study overseas and the high aspirations and challenges they pursue. But it is also to know that each pupil carries within them the skills to cope with the world beyond the school gates in a way that allows them to be pragmatic, confident and resilient, yet committed to making a difference and supporting all those they meet along the way.

Being Life Ready is not just a marketing phrase but a philosophy shared by the whole Ellesmere community that shapes the students of today and the leaders of tomorrow.

Stephen Mullock is Deputy Head Head (External Relations) at Ellesmere College

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