Gatsby Benchmark 4

1. A stable careers programme

As a school we have to have a careers programme in place for all year groups. Teachers, pupils, parents, governors and employers must have have access to our basic programme. Our programme can be found on the school website. Our programme involves careers lessons, form time activities, visits and workshops.

The outline for this can be found on the RA page of the school website

2: Learning from careers and labour market information (LMI)

This benchmark allows students and parents to have access to good information about what jobs are available in their local area, what business are situated near them, what areas need more employees and which jobs might not exist in the future.

Our students have access to up to date labour market information via Unifrog and Hertfordshire have also their own labour market website called the HOP where students can look up local businesses.

Subject leaders can help students by talking about local businesses and new job roles that link to their subject. You can find out more about LMI in the tab on this website.

3: Addressing the needs of each pupil

All of our students have different career aspirations and will need different guidance at different points in their education. The careers guidance and education needs to be tailored to reach students. During their time at school our students will have individual interviews to discuss their next stage, opportunities to visit businesses and further education and additional support if they require it

4: Linking curriculum learning to the careers

ALL TEACHERS should link careers to their subject area. Students can't choose the best career path for themselves if they don't know what jobs are out there. By adding in careers information into lessons students can understand the variety of jobs on offer. Students can often say what subjects they enjoy but can't often say what jobs they could go into with a love for that subject. Lessons can also include employability skills such as presentation, team work and leadership

All departments have their own google drive which can be accessed here. I will put any relevant information, lesson plans, posters etc in here for you to access. You could also add any other 'careers in the curriculum' documents and lessons plans as you will have all your evidence in one place

5: Encounters with employers and employees

Students need to have multiple encounters with employers so they can learn what the world of work is like. The RA team work with lots of different business but subject staff can also bring in employers as well - this could be to do a talk, run work shops or be a virtual talk.

Business that we have a good working relationship are

6: Experience of the workplace

Every student should have first hand experience of the work place. As part of the careers programme, year 8 have one day in the work place as part of Take Your Child to Work Day and year 10 have 2 days as part of Get Work Ready. There are also a number of trips to local workplaces including Amazon and Building sites.

All subject teachers are encouraged to run trips to businesses - this counts as careers in the curriculum.

7: Encounters with further and higher education

All students must have encounters with colleges, 6th forms, learning providers and universities and work based learning. As a school we run an apprenticeship fair and careers fair each year with a variety of learning providers and colleges

By the time students leave us in year 13 they would have been on at least two university visits and we try and make sure students visit at least one university before they get to year 11

Some of the universities we currently work with are

8: Personal guidance

All students must have access to impartial advice about their career choices. We employ YC Herts to deliver this guidance, and are very luck to have Zella Neighbor who works with our students. She works with year 10 and 11 students to make sure they are making the right decision at post 16.