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Introduction from Mr O’Donnell, Head of LAB16
Looking back over the last couple of modules, it’s amazing to see how much has been achieved and how many opportunities our students have had. As the summer IB and BTEC examinations are rapidly approaching, we have been working hard to ensure the year 13s are set for success. All Internal Assessments (IAs), including the Extended Essay, Theory of Knowledge components and Reflective Project that form part of the IB core, have now been submitted, allowing students to focus solely on their upcoming exams. Our holistic approach, inline with the IB philosophy, means that we recognise how important the wellbeing of our students is for their success. To help students cope with the pressure of examinations, therefore, we invited Greenwich's Time to Talk to come and work with our students, sharing strategies they can use. We wish year 13 the best of luck with their upcoming examinations and look forward to celebrating their successes upon release of their results.
For our year 12 students and the year 11 Aspire students, we have had a heavy focus on university engagement with talks and workshops from our contacts at the University of Oxford and more locally at Goldsmiths, University of London. We were honoured to have Beth, from the IB Global Recognition team join us to speak to parents and support students with understanding how their IB programmes help them stand out from other applicants. More recently, year 12 attended the UCAS Discovery Event at the Excel London - a fantastic opportunity for them to speak to universities and apprenticeship providers to help them decide on their post-18 pathways.
Below I have shared more information and photos about some LAB16’s key achievements and opportunities over the past module. Have a wonderful Easter break.
External speakers
What sets us apart from other post-16 provisions is that the LAB16 experience is about more than just grades. We get to know our students as individuals and develop them holistically so that they can flourish in our ever changing world. To facilitate holistic development, we invite external speakers and organisations to share their experiences and expertise with our students. This term, our students have had sessions the privilege of hearing from organisations that help students look after their mental and physical health including coping with exam pressure from the Greenwich Time to Talk team, prevention of young suicide from the charity Papyrus, and sexual health from the equality and diversity charity Metro. In addition, students have benefited from fantastic talks given by an employee at Amazon sharing insight into apprenticeships and female weightlifter, Emily Campbell, responsible for Team GB’s first ever medal in women’s weightlifting. Emily gave a truly inspiring presentation about how she managed such an amazing achievement.
Leigh Academies Trust alumni now working at Amazon gave a presentation to year 12 students on apprenticeships as part of National Apprenticeship Week.
Emily Campbell, winner of Team GB's first ever medal in women's weightlifting, gave an inspirational talk to LAB16 students about her incredible achievement.
Year 13 IB Visual Art students show off their final pieces to be formally assessed as part of an Art Exhibition.
Year 12 had an amazing day speaking with universities and apprenticeship providers at the UCAS Discovery event at London Excel.
The year 12s that had the opportunity to visit Mansfield College, University of Oxford, had an enjoyable day of talks, workshops, tours and lunch in the impressive college dining hall.
UCAS updates
Congratulations to our year 13s who have received an incredible array of offers from universities across the country, including those part of the Russell Group such as Universities of Cambridge, Exeter, Manchester, Bristol, as well as UCL and King's College London. Whilst the proportion of our students heading to university is higher than the national average, we appreciate it’s not the only pathway into a successful career. The IB Career-related Programme is designed to keep options open and whilst universities love it, IBCP students are also highly desirable to apprenticeship providers thanks to the holistic development provided by the IB core. On that note, we would like to congratulate Rory on his recent degree apprenticeship offer from PwC!
The 2026 UCAS cycle has already started with our current year 12s with talks, sessions during tutor time, and visits to Mansfield College, University of Oxford, as well as the UCAS Discovery event at Excel London.
LAB16 Applications for September 2025
We are incredibly proud and passionate about our unique and exceptional post-16 pathways that we offer. Our students are getting an educational experience that will truly help them stand out from the crowd. Word about our offer is spreading fast in the community and the interest in our programmes has been phenomenal. External applications are up by over 50% on last year which has certainly been keeping Mr O’Donnell and Mr Morrison busy with conducting the external LAB16 Guidance Interviews. We are also delighted that so many of our own year 11 students have selected LAB16 as their first choice and college teams have enjoyed speaking to our internal applications during their interviews.
All LAB16 offer holders are invited to attend our LAB16 Taster Day which will be taking place on the 1st July. This is a great opportunity for students to try out their chosen courses, meet new members of their community and have some fun participating in the team building activities! We wish the year 11s the best of luck in their exams and look forward to seeing many of them on July 1st.
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