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We are thrilled to celebrate Zoe, a Year 13 student at RMS who is about to embark on an exciting gap year adventure at Harrow International School in Hong Kong.
In this interview, Zoe shares their motivation for taking a gap year, their experience navigating the application process, the challenges faced along the way, and their excitement for the opportunities that await in this vibrant international setting.
Hi I’m Zoe, I joined RMS when I was in Year 5 and I’m currently in Year 13. I am studying Maths, Physics, Chemistry and Design and Technology: Product Design. Outside of my subjects I have run the school’s digital leaders program for the past four years, play the bassoon in 4 different music ensembles and help with the technical theatre department running school productions. Outside of school I am a keen cricket player and enjoy kickboxing.
What made you choose to take a gap year instead of going straight into further education or the workplace?
When I first joined RMS in 2016 I was a boarder in Harris House, and as a part of the boarding team at RMS we have Gap Girls, typically from Australia and New Zealand. These Gaps made me feel incredibly welcome at RMS and really helped me to settle and find extracurricular activities to get involved with.
Due to my positive experiences with the Gaps at RMS taking a gap year had always been something I had considered.
For me, I made the decision to take a gap year when I was looking around different universities. I decided that I didn’t quite feel ready to start the next step in my education journey, and that if I went straight to university out of school it would just feel like an extension of school and not a new experience. I also thought that I could do with a bit more life experience before university so by taking a gap year I could gain more life experience and therefore enjoy my life at university more.
Why did you specifically choose Harrow International School Hong Kong for your gap year?
Hong Kong was actually not my plan, I thought I wanted to take a gap year in either Australia or New Zealand, mostly because that is where the Gaps from RMS come from. I approached Ms Pickford (the head of careers) about my plan to take a gap year and to ask for support from the school in my applications. She then told me that she was putting a gap year job in the weekly careers bulletin and she encouraged me to apply for it. I figured that even if I did not get the job it would be great experience for my further job applications. As I was filling in the initial application form and researching the school I realised that Harrow International School Hong Kong was incredibly similar in its ethos to RMS. I also really liked the fact the school had values at its core, once again mirroring RMS. The more I researched the school the more I fell in love with it and I decided that I wanted to work in Hong Kong over Australia.
How did you come across this opportunity, and what was the application process like?
I came across this opportunity through the weekly careers bulletin and was encouraged by Ms Pickford to apply for it. Over the October half term I filled out the online application, which was surprisingly long. It made the UCAS form look easy! I then sent this application off to the HR department at Harrow International School Hong Kong and then waited. When I got the email that I had been invited to the first round of interviews I was ecstatic. In this initial round I had two 15 minute interviews and had to sit a test. To help me prepare for these interviews I asked my teachers to give me some mock interviews, which they happily provided for me. These made me feel more confident going into my actual interviews as I had some experience being interviewed and knew what I wanted to talk about. The only down side of my interviews for this job was they were all done between 6am and 8 am! About a week after my initial interviews I was invited to the second round which consisted of 4 more interviews this time with the head teacher, and all of the boarding house Masters and Mistresses. Then I just had to wait to find out if I had been successful, which I found out a week before Christmas.
What advice would you give to students considering a gap year abroad?
I would definitely say go for it! You can either apply directly to a school, like I did, or you can go through an agent who will match you up with schools so you don’t have to find them yourself. It is definitely a really exciting prospect to go off to another country to live and work there for a year (and all of your friends will be jealous).
To give yourself the best chances of getting a job I would recommend doing as many extracurricular activities as possible in a wide range of subjects. My application form was predominantly about what extracurricular activities I had been involved with over anything else. Also having lots of extracurricular activities really helped in my interviews as I was able to answer the questions with experience I have gained from doing my extracurriculars.
Finally I would recommend just being yourself! All of the interviewers want to see you, not the version of you that you think they want to see.
Congratulations to Zoe on securing this incredible opportunity, highlighting the diverse and exciting paths our students take after RMS. Whether it’s further education, the workplace, degree apprenticeships or international experiences, we are proud to see our students pursue their passions and carve out their own unique journeys.