Careers, Community and Cohesion Week

Posted at 9:32 am on 16th July, 2019

Celebrating opportunity and diversity in Manchester

The success of Wellacre’s annual CoCo Day was broadened this year to host a Careers, Community and Cohesion Week to celebrate Manchester’s history and diversity, and to reflect on career opportunities in the local community. 

Throughout the five-day timetable, Year 7 to 9 students engaged in a wealth of educational trips, in-school workshops and welcomed guest speakers.

Highlights from the week included student ambassadors who represented Wellacre at Greater Manchester health, wellbeing and aspirations conferences; Years 8 and 9 enjoyed a Geography field trip to Castleton, and Year 8 enjoying a Navy CCF (Combined Cadet Force) taster sessions.

We welcomed assemblies from the Fire Service and Parliament Outreach team, which engaged students in water safety awareness and in the importance of democracy. 

From a careers perspective, the week coincided with Year 10 work experience and a newly launched Year 7 and 8 Take Your Son To Work Day, which gave key stage 3 students an opportunity to understand more about the world of work.

Mrs O’Neill, Leader of Humanities, said:

“The week ended on a huge high with our Community Cohesion Day - it was a spectacular day of activities celebrating our diverse community, it’s beliefs and practises, whilst also raising awareness of wider issues affecting our world today and in the past.”

With activities varying in each year group, lessons included, for example, LGBT+ rights as part of the UK Diversity Week, the upcoming 200 year anniversary of the Peterloo Massacre,  and Manchester’s legacy and role in UK democracy. 

Guest visitors included a Humanist UK speaker, Sale Rugby Club sport session, a Suman Centre chinese craft session, a Trafford Youth For Christ fair trade workshop, a Myriad Foundation session raising awareness about being a Muslim in Manchester, a Mental Health workshop, and the Vegetarian Society and Animal Aid completed the day with vegetarian and vegan food tasting sessions. 

Fellow former Wellacre student and local actor/entertainer Wayne Devlin also accepted the invitation to join our CoCo Day for the second year running.  He delivered lively drama workshops for Year 7 and 8 students. He said:

“I was very honoured to be invited to spend the day with my old school, Wellacre Academy.  Being a lover of the arts, in all their forms, I was thrilled to be invited along to do a drama workshop and what a fantastic day I had!  I was really impressed by how welcome I was made by both the staff and the students. The boys were all courteous and polite, and really engaged in the lessons. They really are a credit to Wellacre and I wish them all well in their future studies.”

Mrs O’Neill added:

“We are hugely appreciative of all the hard work staff put in to making this week a success. Our visitors deserve huge thanks for joining us to inspire our students. Certainly, we have offered students a huge opportunity to learn about key issues in society, celebrate the diversity in our community, and prepare for life beyond Wellacre.”