EXCELSIOR
THE BBC VISITS TEA
CAREERS
MUSEUM VISIT
WELCOMETO2026
I would like to warmly welcome everyone back to school following the recent school holiday. I am excited about what the new year has in store for us!
At The Excelsior Academy, as well as providing great opportunities for our students to learn outside of the school environment on educational visits, we are often fortunate to welcome visitors to our school who share experiences and opportunities that inspire, motivate and provoke insightful thought and debate. You can read about some of these in this edition of our bulletin. These visits enable our students to enhance their learning and skills in a practical and interesting way, proving that there are many ways to learn.
I look forward to being able to share more such experiences with you in the coming months
CAREERS
It was a great pleasure to welcome back Ibrahim Sowunmi to discuss his career as an Engineer in Technical Solutions and his work around the AI space.
Ibrahim challenged students in Years 9 to 13 to rethink their relationship with technology, moving from "consumers" to "creators." Key takeaways included:
AI Fundamentals: understanding GPUs and LLMs as the "AI brain" and how pattern recognition enables AI to appear sentient.
Creativity and Tooling: using AI tools for quick ideation to develop projects across different areas like gaming, music, marketing, finance, and fashion.
Grounding: a vital reminder of how AI is actually deployed, and that it is not a source of "ground truth" in most contexts.
We look forward to hosting Ibrahim again soon, where our KS5 students will move from theory to practice in an interactive app-building session!
THE BBC AT EXCELSIOR
KS3 and 4 students have begun the new year feeling inspired after hearing from various professionals working at the BBC, as part of the Bitesize London School’s Tour.
The sessions were interactive, and students immersed themselves in asking thoughtful questions.
#careers #BBC #careerseducation
WHAT’SBEENHAPPENING...?
ART & DT IN THE MUSEUM
Year 9 students studying Art & DT enjoyed a visit to the Victoria and Albert Museum. Students discovered the different careers and roles within the museum and took part in a workshop on the topic of identity.
MYBIGCAREER
At the end of last term, Year 8 students enjoyed virtual 1:1 career coaching sessions with a range of industry professionals.
Students shared their thoughts about the experience:
“It has made me less worried about who I want to be”
“I have improved my communication skills and confidence”
“I feel more confident on what to do in the future”
“It gave me a mindset to just push for what I want to do ”
“I enjoyed that someone could motivate me”
“It felt nice to talk to someone who understands what I want to be”
“It was good to have someone to speak to. I would recommend it to lots of people that are still little and thinking about jobs”
Many thanks to the team at MyBigCareer
�� CONTENT CREATOR CLUB IS BACK ON FRIDAY! STUDENTS GET HANDS-ON WITH SHOT TYPES AND CAMERA ANGLES, LEARNING HOW PROS SHAPE STORIES THROUGH THE LENS.
�� CHECK OUT OUR FINAL CLUB SESSION OF 2025 WHERE STUDENTS SET UP AND RECORDED THEIR OWN PODCASTS! #STUDENTCREATIVITY #MEDIASKILLS
