FAQs

What is Friends of Freemen's?

Friends of Freemen's is an online platform for City of London Freemen's School, designed to bring together alumni, parents, staff and governors to create a shared space for careers support, networking and keeping in touch with the School.

Who can join?

Friends of Freemen's exists for the benefit of:

Current and former pupils
Current and former staff
Current and former governors
Other friends of the School

What can Friends of Freemen's be used for?

Current students in the Upper Senior School and Sixth Form can access a network of Freemen's professionals pooled from across our alumni and parent bodies to find a variety of careers support.

Current parents are able to:

Offer careers support to current students and recent leavers: Share your professional insights and experiences via careers talks, become a mentor, or offer work experience placements.
Seek advice: For those of you with children in the Upper Senior School and Sixth Form, you and your children will be able to use the platform to ask for advice and look for mentors and work placements.
Grow your own professional network: Connect with other parents across industries and professions, fostering valuable relationships and opportunities.
Attend careers events: Be the first to hear about careers events, panels, and networking sessions at Freemen's.

Alumni and former parents can:

Stay informed: Hear about upcoming events and news.
Stay connected: Connect with fellow alumni and parents. Rekindle old friendships and forge new ones within our Freemen's community.
Explore opportunities: Access a growing network of professionals, mentors and supporters, all of whom share a Freemen's connection.
Share news: Share your own stories, achievements and milestones.
Promote your business or job opportunities: Add your business or work opportunity to the site using our jobs board and business directory, including internships or work experience placements.

More on Careers support

What are the benefits for current and former students?

Through the Friends of Freemen's Career page, you can find work experience opportunities, gain advice from a mentor in a particular industry, seek help with CV writing and practice interviews, and grow your professional network.

How are current students safeguarded?

Current students must use their School email address to join the platform as School emails can be monitored.
All interactions between users must take place through the platform’s messaging system.
No users should share personal contact details.
Admins from the School can see all interactions between users.
With regards to matching users with mentors, Admins can manage the list of mentor matches and can manually intervene if necessary.

As a parent or former student, what support can I offer?

When you register on the platform, you will be asked if you can help with any of the following activities:

Work experience - please tick this box if you are able to offer a work experience placement, normally for current students in Years 11-12 and ideally, outside of term time.
Deliver careers talks to current students - usually as part of a panel during year group assemblies on a weekday.
Interview prep - short mock interviews for current students in Years 11-12, held during the school day for one hour. For alumni, interview practice is likely to be more in depth and it is at your discretion what you volunteer in this regard.
Mentoring - please see below for more information.
CV review - this would usually be for alumni and would involve a maximum of two reviews per CV with feedback provided by email or telephone.
Exhibit at annual Future Pathways Fair - the School hosts a careers fair every November at Freemen's on a weekday evening. The fair is attended by current students from Freemen's and neighbouring schools from Year 9 onwards.
Industry-specific help - advice for current students and alumni on how to enter an industry, routes available and current trends and career opportunities in the industry.
Setting up a business - this would normally be for alumni seeking advice on how to set up their own business.
Returning to work - this would normally be for alumni seeking advice on returning to work after a career break or a change in direction.

Mentoring

What is mentoring?

Through Friends of Freemen's, mentees are paired with an industry professional (from the School's parent and alumni bodies) to engage in a series of conversations focused around the mentees' career development.

The relationship is led by the mentees in terms of what areas the mentees would like to focus on. A mentorship might cover the following topics:

Routes for entering into a particular job role or industry and the skills/qualifications needed
Top tips for preparing for recruitment processes (CVs, cover letters, interviews, assessment centres)
Preparing for transitioning into the workplace from university
Planning what opportunities to engage with at university or work to help with achieving career goals
Where to source and apply for work experience opportunities
How to grow a network of industry contacts

Mentors will offer industry-specific advice and guidance to improve mentees' skills and confidence and help them to make informed decisions about their future careers.

Mentees are either current students from Years 10-13 or Freemen's alumni. The mentoring format differs depending on whether the mentee is a current student or a former student:

For current students, the School will host termly mentor evenings at Freemen's on a weekday where mentors would speak with current students in pairs.
For members other than current students, mentoring would be on a 1:1 basis and would take place either in person or online as arranged individually. Mentees will speak with their mentor for a maximum of three 1-hour sessions.

Flexible settings: mentors can limit how many people can contact them at one time, specify how they can help, or opt out of the programme temporarily or permanently. Mentors can adjust privacy and notification settings at any time, and even block or report members if required.

Mentors will be contacted by potential mentees via the Friends of Freemen's messaging system. Mentors then have three options:

• Accept the request and offer to help by logging in and replying via the system

• Say no, not right now (in which case, the mentor will be temporarily removed from mentor approaches for 30 days)

• Say no, not ever (in which case the mentor's settings will be changed, and the mentor will be permanently opted out of being approached in future).

For more information, please see the User Guides for more information on how to sign up and Code of Conduct for all users.