Careers Events - Stationers' Mentoring Programme

The Stationers’ Company Mentoring 

SCWA are in a privileged position where we are able to offer our sixth form students the fantastic opportunity to work with professionals for The Stationers’ Company via the Stationers’ Mentoring Programme.  To date 27 students across Year 12 and 13 are involved in the two year scheme where students receive bespoke, one-to-one, long-term, professional guidance from esteemed business experts, who have such a fantastic range of knowledge, skills and experience.  In addition to this, students have benefited from paid work experience placements, trips and access to key career related events. 

The Stationers’  Company Mentor trip to Stationers’ Hall

As part of the Stationers’ Mentor Programme students were invited to Stationers’ Hall to learn all about the history of The Stationers’ Company.  Students were honoured with a guided tour lead by Jani Levänen, Linda Drew and Giles Fagan where they were in awe of the incredible architecture, art work and historical artefacts.  The students were fascinated upon learning about the traditions associated with Livery Companies as well as finding out about some of the more well known Stationers’ such as King Charles and the Duchess of York

"I was honoured to be given the opportunity to visit Stationers’ Hall to get a better insight of The Stationers' Company.   During our visit we were warmly welcomed by the wonderful colleagues and members of the company, we were given a wonderful tour around the historical building known as Stationers’ Hall where we learnt about the architecture and were educated by the wonderful staff. On our way around we visited the historical family shields that were part of the livery company in the past and learnt more regarding the historical journey of the company from beginning to now. The visit continued with us enjoying a lovely lecture about the careers within the company and areas of involvement, overall on behalf of our student body and Stationers’ Crown Woods Academy, I can say I thoroughly enjoyed learning more about the background of our school and historical history behind the notorious City of London Livery Company for the Communication and Content Industries." Jason - Year 12

Stationers’ Mentor Trip to Kemsley Mill

On Friday the 9th of December 2022, a few students were invited to tour the infamous Kemsley Mill by the mills operations director, Guy Lacey. Prior to visiting the mill we were unsure as to what to expect, and so we took an uber there with high hopes, and we sure were not disappointed. As we came closer to our destination we began to see a giant chimney appear in the distance which only seemed to grow as we got closer, to which we soon realised belonged to Kemsley Mill. Upon our arrival we were greeted at their reception with a pair of steel toe boots, high vis jackets and earplugs and were soon greeted by Mr Lacey himself. At this point both me and Josh were in awe at the sheer size of the operation run at Kemsley Mill but little did we know we hadn't even seen half of the site. Mr Lacey took us to the white room which was a large meeting room next to PM3. It was during this meeting that both me and Josh finally realised the sheer scale of the operation with Mr Lacey explaining how they have evolved from one of the smallest paper mills in the uk to being the one of the largest paper mills in Europe. Kemsley Mill alone takes 80% of London’s recycling and 60% of the Uk's recycling and turns it into different cards and papers. Some examples of such boards and papers are Amazon delivery boxes, of which they are their largest supplier and the sheet of paper found on plasterboard used to build 90% of Uk homes.

Once we had been given an idea of the impact that Kemsley Mill has on our everyday lives, we began to tour the plant beginning with the AB-Line. This is where the raw recycling is sorted, removing any particulates such as glass and plastics. This is done by turning the recycling into a pulp by grinding it with water. This pulp is then fed through a series of microscopic grates to remove large debris and then uses a combination of slanted grates that are less than 0.15mm wide and positive and negative air pressures to ensure all particulates are removed. This was arguably the most important step in the process and by far the most technical, as the machinery has to deal with huge amounts of stress whilst only being able to be shut down once a year for three days.

Once we had seen how the paper fibres were separated, we were treated to a tour of PM-3 and PM-4. These are the giant machines that form the sheets of paper in preparation for them to be cut. They do this by passing the wet fibres obtained in the previous step and shooting them at high speeds out of microscopic nozzles onto a conveyor. A second and third layer of paper is then “drifted” onto the first layer at an alternating angle which can be controlled by changing the pressures at which the fibres are shot out at. This helps improve the tensile strength of the cards and papers produced. The conveyor is then run over a hydrofoil which uses suction to draw out excess moisture followed by a set of heated rollers which evaporate any remaining moisture. Once the paper's moisture level is acceptable it is rolled into giant rolls and put into storage ready for it to be cut and sold. 

Ordinarily this would have been the end of the tour but we still had some time left and Mr Lacey was keen to show us the basement where all of the mechanical processes required to make the mill run took place. This allowed us to see the giant pumps and turbo chargers that allow for the running of such high pressure water and various other components such as the huge steam boilers to heat the rollers used to dry the paper. It also gave us an insight into how artificial technology has helped modernise the mill with the odd cart or two pulling 2 ton rolls of paper. Our tour ended with a rather sticky surprise in the form of starch. The paper requires a binder to prevent the layers of paper from peeling and so D.H Smith uses starch. The starch is extracted from corn and wheat which unfortunately had gone wrong on this day leaving behind giant clumps and pools of a sticky solid/ slushy mixture. Overall, the trip was hugely beneficial; giving students who attended a valuable insight into future careers and helped me to finalise my choice to study mechanical engineering at university. Harry - Year 13