Ian Farrar

My name is Ian Farrar, and I am a former student of St. Johns Comprehensive School in Epping, Essex.  I currently live in Pennsylvania, USA, where I am employed as a Principle Scientist for an environmental consulting company. 

 Whilst attending St. Johns, I studied eight GCSEs, including Science and Technology.  This was followed by three ‘A’ levels (Geography, Physics and Chemistry) from Epping Forest College in Loughton, Essex.  A few years later, I attended Anglia Ruskin University and completed an undergraduate degree in Geology.  During my studies at Anglia, I spent one year as an exchange student at Marshall University in West Virginia, USA.  After completing my undergraduate degree at Anglia, I returned to Marshall University for a graduate degree in Physical Science. 

 My professional career began in the midst of my graduate studies in the USA.  While taking part-time classes during the summer, I was also employed as a part-time intern for a gas company in West Virginia.  I worked for their Environmental Remediation program, which was responsible for cleaning up contaminated land sites owned by the gas company.  This intern position led to full time employment as a GIS (Geographical Information Systems) Database Administrator and Environmental Remediation Coordinator. 

 After spending six years in the USA, I returned to the UK and worked as an Environmental Remediation Consultant for various companies.  The purpose of my job was to manage projects that cleaned up contaminated land sites across England.  I worked in London for a period of time, then later moved to Shrewsbury, Shropshire.  More recently, I moved back to the USA where I currently work as a Principal Scientist for Applied Geology and Environmental Science, Inc. (AGES).”

Scarlett Stock

I attended St John's School from 2007-2012 and thoroughly enjoyed my time there and as a result left with 8 A*'s and 3 A's at GCSE which allowed me to study A-Levels at The Bishop's Stortford High School Sixth Form(2012-2014), which I first learned about at a post 16 event at St John's. After being encouraged to get involved in the school community at St John's I continued with this ethos at Sixth Form where went on to become Head Girl, Vice-President of the Interact charity group, Yearbook editor and started the Economics Society. For AS I studied Economics, History, Government and Politics, and English Language and got 4 A's, and I then continued with Economics, Government and Politics, and English Language for A-Level and am predicted A*A*A, so St John's definitely put me in good stead for the future! 

 

Last year I applied to Oxford University, the University of Leicester, Warwick University, Surrey University and Kent University and gained offers from all but Oxford. I got an unconditional offer from Leicester and absolutely loved it there so I shall be attending in September this year (2014) to study Law. I loved the atmosphere and how great the Law school was at Leicester as well as their impressive achievements as a University, so getting an unconditional offer (meaning I was accepted regardless of what grades I get) from my favourite choice was great! I have wanted to study Law pretty much since I started St John's and it seems almost surreal that this will soon become a reality. This passion began at St Johns whilst being Head Girl, a school council representative for 5 years, Epping Forest Youth Council representative, and participating in English speaking and listening assessments where voicing my opinions and debating was something I adored, and as a result I now hope to go on to complete the Bar training course and qualify as a barrister in the future. I am very interested in specialising in modules like medical law, family law, human rights law and competition policy- all which should be great to study and result in me being able to help other people as a career! I hope to start my own Law firm or go on to become a partner at one, one day- but that's a long way off yet! I know that I will have to work exceedingly hard to achieve these ambitions, but the work ethic I gained from my time at St John's and the accolades as well will hopefully allow me to fulfil these dreams!

 

I had a really amazing time at St John's, and I really miss it; I was presented with so many brilliant opportunities which have prepared me so well for the future! :)

Aisha Sanosi

I would like to share my journey since leaving St Johns School in 2010.


I achieved 9 GSCE's A - C and was very excited to continue my journey in education. I had a few ideas of the career I wanted to go into ranging from a teacher to a product designer! I attended a careers event at Harlow College and was attracted to the BTEC health and social care course which I enrolled in to start September 2010.


I enjoyed my time at college and liked the feeling of growing independence. As part of the course we were required to attend a 2 week work placement. I decided that I wanted to organise my own so I contacted St Margarets Hospital who we happy to accept. I had the oppurtunity to shadow all members of staff ranging from nurses to dieticians and physiotherapists. One day I spent the morning with the speech and language therapist whose job I had never heard of. I loved it and was touched to see the amazing work they did, rehabilitating stroke survivors and enabling them to communicate again by speech or alternative methods such as pictures. I went home that day and researched the career, finally deciding that this is what I want to do. Towards the end of my second year at college, it was time to apply for university. I applied to the University of East Anglia (UEA), University of Reading and City London. I had lots of support from the college to write my personal statement and began to visit the universities and find out what university was going to be like! I received an offer from UEA and City and decided to go to UEA as I liked the campus and it wasnt too far from home. I  started Univeristy in September 2012 and am now in my second year with only one to go! I love my course and am very excited to qualify and start this worthwhile career :)

Tony Holland

I attended St Johns school from 1978-1984. My results when I left were not great, in fact quite the opposite, however I have gone on to have modest success.

I currently run a number of companies including one called Caring 4 U, an award winning care agency that helps to care for people in their own homes. Caring 4 U employs over 100 people throughout Essex and is continuing to expand. www.caring4u.co.uk

Another company I have an interest in, The Business Learning Foundation, employs about 15 people in Nottingham & Reading, with associated consultants numbering over 400, and offers training and business coaching solutions to household names such as Orange, Virgin, Sky and Volkswagen. I was recently 'business coaching' the CEO of British Gypsum who has a turnover of over £30 billion pa. This was in my capacity as a Director of the BLF.  www.theblf.co

The variety of companies and industries that I’ve been fortunate enough to be involved in, have led to interesting travel and development opportunities. For example, I helped to create a very specific personality profiling psychometric test, which I went to shanghai to develop, and this is now sold and used by companies such as Lufthansa and T-Mobile.

I have written and published a book called 'Walking in a coaching Wonderland' which was created to help people, this led me to explore further how peoples’ minds worked and I went on to gain a PhD in 'the psychology of clinical hypnotherapy' via a distance learning course with an American university. These areas opened up further opportunities to work with and help others who are having challenges in their life. I purely work on a referral basis now in this area and I receive a number of grateful notes, texts and cards thanking me for my services from individuals, which is very gratifying.

Although I feel that there is so much more to do, the success I've had so far has allowed me to enjoy some of the more material aspects that life has to offer. However, although these things seem important initially, the real lesson is about health, happiness and relationships. I truly believe that nice people can succeed and do well in business and help to build those around you.

St Johns School was a great learning environment for me. Every pupil is different and each person takes different life lessons from their school experience. These days, with the emphasis constantly on exam results and higher education, I was keen to highlight that for some individuals, if you have the right vision and take the right action, success can be achieved in a number of different ways - As Henry Ford once said “some people think they can, and some people think they can’t. And they’re probably both right”