Careers
Introduction
Careers is taught as part of the weekly tutorial sessions that all students have from Year 7 through to Year 13. The tutorial sessions are delivered by Form Tutors under the guidance of the Heads of School and Careers Coordinator. Careers work begins in Year 7 but there is obviously a greater weighting of careers issues delivered in the middle and upper school.
Work experience is available for one week to Year 10 students. Year 12 are encouraged to gain work experience either in their holiday time or in the period after their exams in June. Work experience is especially important for Year 12 students interested in careers linked to care or medicine i.e. Doctor, Dentist, Vet, Nurse, Teacher, or where the competition for university places is great i.e. Law.
Facilities
The careers library is a generous size able to take groups of students, or for individual browsing. There are areas of seating and benches suitable for study and working as well as seating. There are computers and a printer in the careers library however all computers in school are networked and the careers programmes are available on those. Photocopies are freely available for students to make on the machine located in the main library at no cost. There is a sign in the careers library to this effect.
Curriculum
The school intranet has online access to Kudos which is a careers programme that gives guidance and information. The University Prospectuses are selected each year to cover most of the universities in the UK and complement the online versions provided by each institution and UCAS.
There is a section specific to individual jobs that are sourced from careers days held in school and from Professional bodies that represent each key occupational area but this information is increasingly held online and can be accessed via the careers links on the school intranet.
Within this same raised area is also the material on gap year and travel. This includes books and pamphlets from commercial companies and independent sources.
The content within the library includes information suitable for specific year groups from Y7 through to Y13 and is labelled to indicate who it is aimed at.
All information in the library is dated on insertion and reviewed on an ongoing basis and removed when no longer relevant.
General
The SLT member who has overall responsibility for the careers education and guidance in school is Miss B Allen, supported by the head of schools and form tutors.
The school library management system incorporates an OPAC (online public access catalogue) which is available on any computer in school. This is also available from home via the internet advising users of the catalogued resources available for staff and pupil use.
The Year 7 students are given a talk by the Library Officer (who is also the careers co-ordinator) on the use of the main and careers library. Part of the careers education programme includes a lesson to Year 8 students on the specific use of the careers library, including instruction on the use of the careers software. This is delivered by the careers coordinator. All students are informed of their entitlement to a one to one session with the careers advisor.
As part of a rolling programme staff are required to deliver lessons as part of the careers education and guidance will get advice from Mrs T Elliott on the specific use of the resources available to staff and students.
Staff
For any careers issue, the form tutor is usually the first person to talk to and they will be able to point a student in the right direction, which might simply be to a book or website.
Please click on the link below for an up-to-date list of staff: