Welcome to the Katie Jayne Tutors Senior Blog Issue Number 22.
Mentoring month will be upon us in the New Year and we spoke to a few of our colleagues who have the joy of mentoring others and what that means for them. Find out how you can get involved in a mentoring scheme at your school and what the benefits are for you and for others.
Most of you will have broken up by now and shall be at home enjoying your Christmas holiday. But there are a few of you who will be breaking up at the end of this week. As you know, we do not like to set you too many educational items when you are on holiday, but there will be a few fun items that are educational too! Take a look at the Educational Activities at the bottom of the blog.
All of the usual items included below to take a look at – Media Chart, Feel the Burn and finding a Pen Pal within this week’s Educational Activities. Give something new a go and enjoy your Christmas holiday! See you next time…
Sam
National Mentoring Month
Mentoring is such an important part of life; from the primary school teacher teaching their young students to a Sixth Form student helping and supporting a new Year 7. All very important ways of learning and also of passing on help, information and of giving support. At some point in their lives most people mentor somebody, you can often mentor somebody without even realising it. If you help a friend, or support a colleague through a difficult project or personal challenge this is all mentoring. Most school’s have a mentoring system, students need to apply and show what benefit they can pass on to their younger cohort. Find out from your teachers if you have a mentoring programme and if you do not you could always consider starting a brand new programme tailor made for your school.
The National Mentoring website has lots of good ideas and help tool kits that you can use – take a look!
January 7, 2021 – I Am a Mentor Day
January 17, 2021 – International Mentoring Day
January 18, 2021 – Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day of Service
January 27 – January 29, 2021 – National Mentoring Summit
January 29, 2021 – #ThankYourMentor Day
Our Katie Jayne Tutor staff have mentored students and colleagues in the past. This is what they had to say about their experiences.
Katie
I have mentored a number of PGCE students whilst working in schools. It is a great privilege to help support someone starting out on their teaching journey. I thoroughly enjoy mentoring students and seeing them grow in confidence and ability.
I also currently have a business mentor and I thoroughly recommend it. My mentor does not work in education and so she brings fresh insight and ideas from another industry to our company. She is a parent and is therefore able to offer insight from a parental point of view as well with services and products that would be of benefit to others. It is also great to just have someone who you can chat with about ideas, how the business is going etc.
Sam
Mentoring students is a joy, I was lucky enough to mentor a group of 8 sixth form students. We worked on a project together that spanned a full academic year, the project was to set up an art exhibition. We collected art from artists worldwide, advertised the exhibition, worked on logistics and ran the exhibition over a four day period. Watching students grow in ambition over the year preceding the exhibition was a real joy. Seeing students gain skills that they will use when they go on to University or into the world of work and helping them to deal with the challenges and the successes of something that they are working gives you a great deal of job satisfaction. I would recommend becoming a mentor if you have the time, patience and focus to help others, there is huge personal reward.
Stephen
There was a Mentoring Agreement in place which covered expectations from both parties.The aim of the mentoring was to be a very open, transparent and trusted conversation to allow the junior party to gain a different perspective on challenges they face and to understand what was required to adapt a more senior position. Definitive benefits to be had through the introduction of new ideas and thought processes but trust is imperative for the relationship to work. The positive side of mentoring – to open up the mentee’s eyes and get them to see things from a different perspective. The negative side of mentoring – if expectations are not clearly set out in the Mentoring Agreement then it can lead to disappointment for one or both parties.
A Day in the Life of an Accountant
Accountants manage other people’s money. They are usually experts with numbers, excellent at advanced Excel and have a good understanding of Tax Law and Anti Money Laundering to name a few. To become an accountant you will require a degree/Level 4-6 qualification. The type of jobs available to you at this level would be:
Auditor – Auditors go into companies and work through all of the financial records to make sure they are accurate.
Investment analyst -This is usually a job that needs extra insight into creating reports to help stock-market traders make decisions about investments.
Stockbroker – This role is set within the stock market trade and your role would be to manage investments for individuals, companies or large organisations.
The starting salary can be in the region of £27,000 with an open ended top bracket depending on your company and experience. Many accountants earn in excess of £100,000 per annum and can buy into partnerships within accountancy firms.
Job’s for those with entry with Level 2 Qualifications
Credit controller
Insurance claims handler
Insurance underwriter
Management consultant
Tax adviser
Economist
Jobs for those with a Level 3 Qualifications
Insurance broker
Management accountant
My day…John tells us about his day as a business accountant
Emails, emails, emails. The priority is to keep good communication with my clients. Most of my clients are business owners or Management Accountants working for large blue chip companies and it is vital that I stay ahead of the game in terms of what they require.
Being able to look at the day ahead and the week ahead to see what has an upcoming deadline is also key. Deadline focused work puts a little extra pressure on you to get the job done and the client expects that you will hit those deadlines. This can mean working longer days when necessary.
Any new accountant will find that they do have a varied role but it can be full on.
Keeping up to date with any finance news is key. I read the Financial Times, the online version and ensure that I have alerts set up from HMRC, AML etc so that I keep up to date with any new guidelines or legislation.
Some of the tasks I carry out during the day can be varied and include things like business meetings, helping a client purchase a business, helping clients streamline businesses to get the most profit, consolidating assets and then helping companies float on the stock exchange, accounts and tax returns.
Helping a business grow is the most enjoyable part of my role as a Business Accountant, I guess the tax returns are the most dull part of my job but hey you have to take the rough with the smooth in any job.
Media Chart
Music
Can you believe that this is the first time Mariah Carey has reached number one in the UK with ‘All I Want for Christmas is You’ ?
Film
Tent is finally out to rent on Sky and Virgin Media – catch this one, it is supposed to be a 4.5 star****
App
Universe in a Nutshell
£3.29
Universe in a Nutshell is a new educational app that shows you the relative size of things in the universe.
Launch the app and you’ll be presented with animated images of a giraffe, the largest elephant, a human, and other creatures, along with a listing of their size. You can tap on any of them for more information, but you can also pinch to zoom in or out and see much bigger or smaller things.
Educational Activities
Pen Pal – As a child having a pen pal was exciting. I started writing to Nuala in France when I was just seven years old, we built up a fabulous friendship and kept this going through our school years and into adulthood. Even our children have kept in touch so we are now starting on Geneneration 3 …
We recommend finding a pen pal whilst at school with your teachers overseeing your contact. Many schools already have a twinned school in other countries that they have worked with for many years. If you would like to recommend this to your school, take a look at the websites below as a starting point.
I learnt a new language, visited a country I had never been to before, learnt about family traditions and have kept up to date with all things French over the years. This has brought an educational aspect to my life but also a strong bond with somebody that I now class as family.
Here are some recommended websites where you can find your pen pal:
InterPals
Global Penfriends
Conversation Exchange
HelloTalk
PenpalsNow
Penpal Party
My Language Exchange
Polyglot Club
