A-level Results day!

All of us at Satro would like to say a big well done to all students collecting their A level results in Surrey & borders today - you've worked very hard and you deserve your success! :-)

But if you aren't so happy with your results we'd also like to say, DON'T PANIC!

As you know, we work with thousands of young people in Surrey & borders every year, including hundreds who receive one to one mentoring from our volunteers - so we know that far too often it can seem like this is your 'one chance' in life to get it right.

Of our 850+ volunteers, from all areas of the working world, some did get it right first time - but a huge number didn't, and lots and lots of them didn't discover what they wanted to do until they had tried several different things first (and hated them!) - and they are all successful and love what they do now (which is why they volunteer for us, to help inspire you!).

So here's our top tips for what do do next if you are not jumping for joy today:

• Get advice: speak to teachers, careers advisors and any contacts you or your parents have in areas of work that you might be interested in - about what your options are and what to do next.
• Do your homework: think about other options - not just alternative Universities, but Apprenticeships, part-time degrees and vocational courses at colleges. Satro regularly employs Apprentices and they all tell us that for them, it was the best choice they could have made. There are loads of opportunities out there - check the National Apprenticeship Website.
• Make the best impression: whatever option you have chosen, arm yourself with extra information that could make you stand out formt he crowd, such as relevant work experience, awards or achievements - things like participation in SATRO Challenges or SATRO/Nuffield Work Placements have been known to make the difference - especially if you can demonstrate what you have learnt from taking part!
• Don’t panic: places can go quickly, but avoid the temptation to take the first offer.
• Rehearse: be prepared to explain why your grades were disappointing and rehearse answers to questions admissions staff or potential employers are likely to ask you.
• Stand tall and be confident - if you need to make a phonecall about a place or a job - have your 'script' written down ready, stand up and smile - you'll be suprised how confident it makes you feel and sound, and the person on the other end of the phone won't be able to see you!

Day 6 in the Nuffield Placement!

Sian is acquiring lots of new skills in her placement at Guys.

"The day started with my lab safety training, where there were several others – mostly Romanian students. I then took my data that I had presented and showed it to Jeremy. There is no obvious relationship between golgi orientation and elongation of cells, however there were a few similarities between the embryos. We agreed to get more reliable results we need to image another embryo. I also need to divide the palatal shelf into sections and analyse the orientation of the golgi.
I got started with Eleni on preparing the embryo for imaging, overall it will take about a week to image."

The real benefit of volunteering!

"Its not just about giving back to the community, it's about what the corporate gains from it" Volunteer, Allianz.

Satro staff & Trustees gathered at our office in Send yesterday to hear from a fantastic team of volunteers from Allianz who have been working on a project for us that will make a real difference to the way we work.

Allianz, in common with many large employers, run an excellent Leadership Development programme for their up and coming 'bright stars' - what's different about their programme is that each team is asked to work on a project that will use all of their newly acquired leadership tools, but which will benefit a local charity. This is a fantastic opportunity for Charities to access skills and expertise that they wouldn't normally be able to, so Satro was delighted when earlier this year we were asked to get involved.

We asked the Allianz team to help us get better at capturing data on what difference we make - to young people, to teachers and to our volunteers, and also to give us some ides for how we can shout about our work. Too often we are simply too busy 'doing' to take the time to tell people all about it. In these times of drastically reduced funding, it's vital that as many people as possible in our region, and elsewhere, know what good work is going on under their noses!

The team from Allianz have developed some new systems for us to capture the huge impact of what we do, and much better (and simpler) ways for us to express how important our work is - even making a fantastic fundraising film for us which will be up on our website very soon! We were thrilled with the new tools and techniques we have, but also we thoroughlly enjoyed working with the team. The team too had enjoyed the experience - they all spoke passionately about their support for Satro's work - and about how much they had learnt by being able to work with a charity in this way - far more, they thought, than if they had been asked to work on a project in their own company.

We hope that other employers in the area, large and small, realise how much volunteering can be a fantastic opportunity to develop new skills amongst their staff, as well as raising their profile in the local community, and truely giving something back to the community - if they don't, we can introduce them to several hundred people who already volunteer for us and can tell them all about the real benefits!

Sian's Nuffield Placement continues...!

Sian has been hard at work at Guy's Hospital - here is what she did yesterday!


"When I got in to the post-grad office, I went over a few things I did in the previous week and then it was off to a lab meeting. Six of us met in Jeremy’s office where we discussed what we were all doing in the lab and how we were getting on – I even said my bit!
On the computer I added to my project document, updating what I had been doing. I then used the data from volocity (drawing lines between golgi and nucleus) and put it into excel. I calculated the frequency of bearings in different angle categories, e.g 0>30degrees. No obvious pattern shown yet."

follow her on:  www.medblog.medlink-uk.net/sian

NEWS FROM NUFFIELD STUDENT!

One of our fabulous Nuffield students, Sian Nasse, has started her Nuffield placement at Guys Hospital in the Craniofacial Department, researching into cleft-lips.  Sian hopes to post every day and we can't wait to see how she fares at this prestigious London hospital.  Follow her on the link:

http://medblog.medlink-uk.net/sian/I

SATRO MOBILE CONSTRUCTION RESULTS

Great news!  We have just had the results for this years' students:

Level 1 Certificate: 85.6% pass rate (LY 82%)

Well done to the students and the tutors. 

The vans are having a well -earned rest and MOT in readiness for the new Academic Year!

SATRO NUFFIELD STUDENT EXCELS!

FANTASTIC FEEDBACK  about one of this summers' Nuffield Placement students, Oliver Page of the Royal Grammar School.  His supervisor, Dr Jon Varcoe Reader in Materials Chemistry at the University of Surrey has contacted us to make us aware of Olivers' achievements.

"Oliver Page is on his last day of his 4 week Nuffield placement in my laboratories, and we have been delighted with his efforts. He has worked very hard and professionally. He has produced some excellent results of such quality (and potential impact to my field of polymer fuel cells) that we are planning on publishing his results later this year in a Royal Society of Chemistry high impact journal [once we have done a few follow up experiments that take longer than 4 weeks to complete]. Dare I say it, but he has produced more high quality work in 4 weeks than some of our final year undergraduates managed in a few months!

Congratulations Oliver!