Ready.
For your next chapter.
Prologue helps students build the clarity, direction, capability and momentum to navigate the world beyond sixth form.
UNIVERSITY · DEGREE APPRENTICESHIPS · EARLY CAREERS
Beyond the
academic curriculum
WELCOME TO PROLOGUE
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The decisions students make during sixth form will shape the next decade of their lives - whether to go to university; what and where to study; the alternative routes available to them; which career paths to follow.
And they are making these decisions in an increasingly competitive environment, where academic grades are often the entry requirement but are rarely the differentiator.
To navigate the journey beyond sixth form successfully, students need clarity about themselves and the options available to them; direction to refine the opportunities they choose to pursue; the capability to compete, stand out and succeed; and the momentum to turn ambition into action.
Welcome to Prologue.
CLARITY · DIRECTION · CAPABILITY · MOMENTUM
WHAT WE DO
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Writing the next chapter
We know that each student has their own individual story ahead of them. We offer four distinct but complementary areas of support to help them write their next chapter.
Mentoring
Individual mentoring that provides focus and challenge, helping students clarify their direction, scrutinise their options and turn good intentions into purposeful action - with the accountability and support to maintain momentum.
Prologue Laboratories
Focused, practical programmes that build the specific knowledge, tools and skills students need to navigate crucial aspects of life beyond sixth form.
Prologue Academies
Immersive, applied supercurricular programmes that enable students to explore a professional field, tackle complex, real-world challenges, develop their capability and build credible evidence of what they can do.
Work Placements
Purposeful, curated work experience that gives students first-hand insight into a professional environment, enabling them to test their direction, develop their capability and make more informed decisions about what comes next.
MENTORING
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Focus, challenge and momentum
Prologue Mentoring provides individual support for a limited number of sixth-form students navigating important decisions about university, degree apprenticeships, work and the opportunities beyond school.
Through regular one-to-one conversations, students clarify their direction, scrutinise their options and turn good intentions into purposeful action - with the challenge, accountability and support needed to build and maintain momentum.
Mentoring may include course and route choices, professional exploration, applications, work experience, personal development and next-step planning. For some students, it can also form the foundation for a curated work placement.
Applied supercurricular learning
PROGRAMMES
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Prologue Programmes provide sixth-form students with applied supercurricular opportunities to explore their interests, deepen their understanding and apply what they learn through practical, real-world experiences.
Through Prologue Laboratories and Prologue Academies, students move beyond learning about a subject to using their knowledge to make decisions, solve problems, develop transferable skills and learn from what the actions they take.
The programmes vary in depth, challenge and commitment, but share the same principle: learning becomes more valuable when students have the opportunity to apply it.
FEATURED PROGRAMMES
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Learn to manage your money
by managing money.
An 18-week Prologue Laboratory that equips sixth-form students with the knowledge, tools and skills to manage their money with greater confidence and independence - from budgeting, saving and borrowing to payslips, tax, pensions and the costs of living independently.
Students apply and embed what they learn through an interactive financial-life simulation, making decisions, experiencing the consequences and reflecting on their choices before the financial stakes become real.
Explore the Personal Finance Laboratory →
£150,000. One client.
Competing teams. Twenty weeks.
A 20-week Prologue Academy in which students develop their understanding of financial markets, investment products, risk and return, diversification and portfolio construction, before applying what they learn to manage a simulated £150,000 portfolio for a fictional client.
Working in competing teams, students research investment ideas, build and actively manage their portfolio, respond to changing circumstances and ultimately present and defend their decisions before a panel of investment professionals.
Experience with purpose
WORK PLACEMENTS
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Prologue Work Placements are purposeful, curated and centred on the individual student.
Available only to students we have already worked with through Mentoring or a Prologue Academy, we help identify and arrange an appropriate placement, shaped around a student we know - their direction, what they want to learn and the capabilities they want to develop.
In the lead-up to the placement, we help the student prepare and liaise directly with the employer. We actively manage the placement throughout, with regular touchpoints with the student.
On completion, we obtain candid feedback from the employer and debrief the student - enabling them to reflect on what they learned, how they performed and where they need to develop.
Prologue Work Placements add real value to more traditional work experience, helping students understand how to use what they have learned to their advantage and build momentum towards what comes next.
FOR PARENTS
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A trusted partner
Parents can play an important role in helping their children navigate what comes after sixth form. But some of the most important conversations - about direction, options, ambition and what happens next - can also be the hardest to have at home.
Prologue provides an independent, trusted voice. We get to know the individual student, challenge their thinking and help them make more informed decisions, while providing the support and accountability to turn those decisions into action.
We work in partnership with parents, bringing experience, objectivity and a different perspective to the conversation - and helping students build the clarity, direction, capability and momentum to navigate what comes next.
CLARITY · DIRECTION · CAPABILITY · MOMENTUM
FOR SCHOOLS
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Working with schools
Prologue works alongside sixth forms to extend the opportunities available to their students beyond the academic curriculum.
Through Prologue Laboratories, Prologue Academies, individual Mentoring and Work Placements, we complement existing school provision with practical experiences that help students build greater clarity and direction, develop their capabilities and turn ambition into action.
Our programmes can be delivered directly to groups of students or developed with schools around a particular need, while individual Mentoring and Work Placements provide more personalised support for students who would benefit from it.
We bring together education, professional experience and the world of work, giving schools an additional resource to help prepare their students for university, degree apprenticeships and early careers.
Education.
Recruitment.
Real-world experience.
ABOUT PROLOGUE
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Prologue was founded by Simon Selkirk, bringing together his unique blend of experience across education, recruitment and the world of work.
Simon spent the first 20 years of his career in recruitment, including 15 years building and running his own consultancy. In 2019, he retrained as a teacher and has since spent six years in education, most recently teaching Economics and Business at A-Level at Stamford School.
Alongside teaching, Simon was Head of Year 13 and part of the Sixth Form Management Team at Stamford, supporting 160 students as they made some of their first genuinely life-shaping decisions about university, degree apprenticeships, employment and what should come next.
That combination of experience gives Prologue an unusual perspective: an understanding of the decisions students face as they leave school, the capabilities they need to develop and what the world beyond education will expect of them.
NEXT STEPS
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Why Prologue?
A prologue is not the story itself. It establishes the context, introduces the world and prepares the reader for what follows.
Prologue exists to do precisely that for sixth form students — helping them build clarity about the world ahead, decide where they want to be and develop the capability and momentum to get there.
Are you ready for your next chapter?