Statutory Information
National Context: The government’s Careers Strategy published in December 2017 sets out clear guidance to schools and colleges about Statutory Guidance for School Leaders and optional best practice.
Baker Clause Policy Statement: Our Provider Access Policy (Technical Education & Apprenticeships) can be viewed on our Policies webpage.
Brannel School’s Careers Lead: Mr James Worthington. tel: 01726 822485 | email: [email protected]
Summary of Our Careers Programme
Brannel Careers Education Strategy 2020-23
This information is reviewed annually during the Autumn Term.
The vision, aim and intent of our careers programme are summarised in our Careers Education Strategy 2020-23, which can be view and downloaded from the Key Programme Documents section above.
We seek to ensure that the curriculum extends beyond the academic, technical and vocational. We encourage the broader development of each student, enabling them to discover interests and talents. We prepare each student for future success in their next steps. We promote an inclusive environment that meets the needs of all students.
A large number of events take place alongside work within lessons to enable our students to achieve the following progression goals:
- Year 7: finding out what is available regarding careers and associated advice and support.
- Year 8: developing the skills necessary to make informed decisions regarding option subjects and beyond.
- Year 9: developing transferable skills and resilience to enhance employability.
- Year 10: making informed decisions about the future (beyond the age of 16).
- Year 11: becoming more employable, resilient and ready for the world of work.
Our students participate in many careers events including:
- Employability masterclasses.
- ‘I love my job’ sessions with employees from many workplace sectors.
- Apprenticeship workshops.
- Trips to colleges and universities.
- Work experience programme in Year 10.
- Mock interviews.
- Opportunities to interact with alumni in many subject areas.
Academic, vocational and technical routes are given equal importance, and every student has multiple opportunities to liaise with employers from a range of workplace sectors. Local FE, HE and apprenticeship providers work with our students and we encourage students to consider ALL routes without undue pressure being put upon specific routes, whilst still setting challenging targets for each student.
How do we Measure Impact?
Our careers programme is designed around the Gatsby Benchmarks, a framework of eight guidelines that define the best careers provision in schools and colleges. We use The Careers and Enterprise Company’s tools to audit our careers provision and to keep track of careers related activity. We evaluate our school against the Gatsby Benchmarks using Compass, an online self-evaluation tool. We record and manage our careers plan for the year using the Tracker tool, tracking our progress against the eight Gatsby Benchmarks.
A key measurable success indicator for our Careers Programme is student destinations. Each year we identify and analyse the destinations of our Year 11 students taking into account their prior attainment. For Year 11 students, we record pathways including Level 2 courses, Level 2 apprenticeships, Level 3 courses, and Level 3 apprenticeships. Our goal is to track students for three years from the end of Year 11, identifying and reviewing where students leave or change courses/apprenticeships.
We are also very keen to get the views of students on the careers advice they receive during their time at Brannel. We ask all Year 11 students to complete an on-line survey to find out their views on individual elements of the careers programme and their overall assessment of the programme. In addition, our Enterprise Advisers and Governor Careers Champion will meet representative groups of students to find out more about what they like and dislike about the careers programme and ways they believe it can be improved.
We value the views of our parents on how well we have helped them to support their child make rational informed career decisions.