Future Ready Skills: A Sixth Form Curriculum Extending Beyond Academic Excellence

Posted on 27th July 2026

How hands-on work placements and bespoke career guidance empower our Sixth Form students to step into the modern workplace with confidence.

At Norwich High School for Girls, our Sixth Form curriculum extends far beyond academic excellence. We actively prepare our students to step into the modern workplace with confidence, resilience and practical skills. Our all-girls Sixth Form does not shield students from the real world – its purpose is to prepare them for it.

Our bespoke Beyond opportunities, including tailored work experience programmes, enable our Sixth Form students to gain real-world exposure across a variety of competitive industries. Such experiences are instrumental in developing future-ready skills, essential for whichever path our students choose to follow.

Our Sixth Form offering includes a broad and unique programme of careers guidance, events and support tailored to each individual student. Our ‘universal destinations’ career platform, Unifrog, identifies competencies, or employability skills, which underpin every soft skill potential employers and further education institutions look for from students. This could include aiming high, creativity, leadership, problem solving, teamwork and independence.

 

Conversations about transferable skills are vital when laying out the foundations of employability alongside our coaching to help students understand the modern job market.

Real-World Impact: How Isabella Turned Classroom Ideas into Commercial Design

Year 12 student, Isabella, recently put these conversations of careers into practice. Completing a work experience placement at Norfolk-based, female-founded brand Lisa Angel. Isabella stepped out of her comfort zone to collaborate with the professional creative teams, gaining experience in both design and creation of retail products.

Isabella worked independently across multiple departments while receiving encouraging guidance from industry mentors. The Lisa Angel team were incredibly encouraging and kind, providing Isabella with the opportunity to both function and flourish in the workplace.

The Lisa Angel product design team provided Isabella with the unique opportunity to independently create her own jewellery case, – from concept inception to completion. She conducted market research and analysed current retail trends to create her design. Her concept featured a ‘slice of cake’ motif with the slogan, “You’re The Sweetest”.

 

Moving beyond paper sketches, she perfected her design using Adobe Illustrator. Using a UV printer, Isabella produced the physical design gaining an unforgettable hands-on experience and receiving a wonderful memento of her time at Lisa Angel. She even adapted her artwork for leather keyrings and pendant necklaces! 

The transformative power of witnessing a female-founded business thrive demonstrated to Isabella what is possible in her own career. By turning academic excellence into real-world practice, our girls discover their capability long before leaving school. 

This experience provided a powerful turning point for Isabella’s future career and learning ambitions. Her time at Lisa Angel sparked a clear passion for creative design. 

“After completing my placement at Lisa Angel, I have now started to further consider pursuing a creative/design career!

 

I had originally thought that I would like to do marketing with management, but now, due to how much I enjoyed my work experience and how much I feel I have learnt from it, I am inclined to pursue design instead.”

– Isabella, Year 12 Student at Norwich High School for Girls

Sixth Form Autumn Open Evening

Discover our award-winning Sixth Form at our Open Evening on Thursday, 1st October 2026 at 6.30pm.

In Sixth Form thoughts turn towards the future – about life after school. Our role at Norwich High is to do everything we can to help you continue on the path you choose. Your role is to work with us to explore it, enjoy preparing for it, and give as much as you can to achieving your goals.

At our Open Evening, you will get the opportunity to hear from our Director of Sixth Form, Mrs Hazel Packer, as well as current students. You can tour our fantastic stand-alone facilities, meet our inspiring staff and students, and find out about what makes our Sixth Form so special – and how our students learn without limits.

Autumn Open Evening – Sixth Form

Thursday 1st October, 6.30pm – 8.30pm Book your place
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