The Academy, Selsey

Careers Policy

November 2022

Policy edition:                        2

Adopted by the LGB:                November 2022

This policy will be reviewed annually

Key Contact Personnel  

Nominated Member of Leadership Staff Responsible for the policy:

Dean Searley, Deputy Headteacher

 Careers Lead(s): 

Dean Searley

Careers Co-ordinator:

Chris Willshire

Pastoral Leaders:

James Savage (Year 7&8) Matthew Tymon (Years 9-11)

Named Governor with lead responsibility:

Andrew Jenkins

LEP Associate and Enterprise Leads:

Sian Lewis (Coast to Capital)

Trudy Glew

Statutory Requirements

The statutory guidance for careers education, information, advice and guidance (CEIAG) was published in September 2022 with reference to section 42A, 42B,  45 & 45A of the Education Act 1997.  

CEIAG will:

• Be presented in an impartial manner
• Include information on the range of education or training options, including apprenticeships and other vocational pathways
• Promote the best interests of the students to whom it is given

Aims

In accordance with statutory guidance, the Academy, Selsey aims to offer independent careers education guidance for all students so that every child leaves school prepared for life in modern Britain. This means ensuring academic rigour supported by excellent teaching, and developing in every young person the values, skills and behaviours they need to get on in life. All children should receive a rich provision of classroom and extra-curricular activities that develop a range of character attributes, such as resilience and grit, alongside the 8 Skills Builder life skills which underpin success in education and employment. We aim to meet (and exceed wherever possible) the DfE recommendations that schools should:

• Provide sustained contacts with employers, mentors and coaches who can inspire students with a sense of what they can achieve with the right choices and help them understand how to make this a reality  
• Have a strategy for the advice and guidance that we provide to young people. The strategy should be embedded within a clear framework linked to outcomes that reflects our ethos and meets the needs of all our students
• Provide access to a range of activities that inspire young people, including employer talks, careers fairs, motivational speakers, college and university visits, coaches and mentors  
• In-house support for students must be combined with advice and guidance from independent and external sources to meet the school’s legal requirements. It should be noted that website access is not sufficient in itself to meet the statutory duty to encourage young people to think about the opportunities available to them
• To be consciously working to prevent all forms of stereotyping in the advice and guidance that is provided, to ensure that boys and girls from all backgrounds and diversity groups consider the widest possible range of careers, including those that are often portrayed as primarily for one or other of the sexes
• Work with the Local Authority Integrated Front Door (IFD) Service and Uni Connect to identify vulnerable young people, including those with special educational needs and those at risk of not participating post-16, and the services that are available to support them. The Academy, Selsey is particularly aware of the need to do this for girls, in particular, who are statistically much more likely than boys to risk limiting their careers by dropping STEM subjects at an early age. Due to our geographic isolation, we seek to promote opportunities that promote high levels of aspiration and improve social mobility.

Links with other policies

The policy for CEIAG is underpinned by a range of key school policies

• Teaching and Learning
• Curriculum
• Equality
• Special Educational Needs

Practice

The school will achieve these aims by:

• providing in-house Inset to staff to support teaching and learning opportunities within the curriculum
• encouraging staff to identify the contributions of CEIAG and to plan to develop it into schemes of learning materials provided by NCS, https://nationalcareersservice.direct.gov.uk/, Xello, Skills Builder and others
• promoting a variety of opportunities providers such as Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) for career and employability learning during and outside curriculum time e.g. visits, speakers, planned activities, mock interviews, business links, etc
• developing mentoring schemes in-house, through businesses and the wider community to help raise motivation and aspirations, Futures Interviews
• encouraging the practising and development of key skills both in and out of school
• ensuring all students participate in a pastoral curriculum and take part in enterprise activities such as: careers themed experiences and special projects linked with the wider world of work through external providers
• providing all students with opportunities to support aspirations and employability
• providing one-to-one careers advice for Year 10 students when deciding on post-16 courses and Year 9 when choosing their exam courses and providing a wide range of option choices to try to meet the needs of all students. All Year 9-11 students have a Futures Interview annually to develop interview strategies and competencies.
• developing opportunities for enterprise capabilities through a range of cross – curricular activities and discrete activities that are supported by other subject areas, including citizenship and the pastoral curriculum.
• providing extended career learning opportunities and University experiences for targeted KS3-4 students.
• work with the local authority, IFD and Uni Connect to identify students at risk of being NEET (not in education, employment or training), at transition from KS2 and during KS4.

Professional Development for staff

The school makes provision for continued professional learning (CPL) opportunities for staff ensuring that:

• areas of staff development needs are highlighted through the whole school self-evaluation
• the school provides opportunities for continued professional development for staff with responsibilities for careers and vocational programmes
• training provides opportunities for teachers to keep up-to-date with the changes and development in employment, the workplace and business and the requirements of employers
• the school shares good practice in other local schools and other local authorities

Development of Business Links (Local Enterprise Partnership)

We have coordinated links with LEP, local and national businesses and other external agencies. The school:

• works closely with the LEP and other agencies to support and provide activities, and links to promote the Careers and work related learning programme
• meets with and discusses plans with the Enterprise coordinator to provide careers advice and opportunities.
• makes use of labour market information and local employment opportunities and projection of local skills needs

Access to Impartial Information & Guidance

The school:

• ensures that the School’s career learning programme reflects the school’s equal opportunity policy and the disability equality scheme
• ensures that Year 10/11 students are offered careers education and employability guidance with an impartial adult. This is done through Futures Interviews, involving leaders of local businesses and sixth form providers, as well as support from Elev8 Careers which reflects the interest, ambition and potential of each student. All LAC (Looked After Children) and EHCP (Education, Health and Care Plan) students in Years 9 - 11 have a 1 to 1 careers interview annually as part of their PEP (personal education plan) or annual review
• ensures that the Year 11 mentor is directed to assist with targeted students and alternative support provided from external agencies, if required. This mentor also discusses the need to achieve at least ‘a pass’ (grade 4/5) for English and mathematics at level 2 whilst achieving FFT20 targets in all core and option subjects.

Evaluation and Monitoring

The school ensures that the following key staff are involved in evaluation and monitoring:

The Careers team (Deputy Head and Careers Co-ordinator) are involved in planning and reviewing work related learning opportunities promoted through the tutor programme and the pastoral curriculum.

The Careers team co-ordinate the careers education, guidance and employability programme in the school.

The Deputy Headteacher line manages the Careers Co-ordinator.

A link governor for work related learning and careers education who provides feedback to the governing body.

The Deputy Headteacher evaluates and assesses the needs of all students, works with IFD, Uni Connect and LEP to reflect the requirements of individuals or cohorts.

Ultimately, we will measure our success reflected in higher numbers progressing to apprenticeships, universities – including selective universities, traineeships, and other positive destinations such as employment or a further education college. This will help to close the gap in destinations between young people from disadvantaged backgrounds and others.  

The Academy, Selsey uses destination measures data, published by the Department for Education, to assess how successfully our students make the transition into the next stage of education or training, or into employment.

There is a system in place to ensure that the provision is regularly monitored and evaluated through:

• A bi-annnual survey of all stakeholders on careers provision at TAS.
• Compass Plus Review (Termly)
• A careers education and employability annual strategic action plan presented to the TAS Local Governing Board
• Year 9-11 Futures Interviews
• Year 7 Skills Builder Hub
• Year 8-9 Skills Builder Benchmark
• Year 10-11 Skills Builder Launchpad
• Year 7-11 Xello self-assessment

The learning is assessed and/or accredited in a variety of ways including:

• Skills Builder Awards and case study
• Compass Plus Review (Termly)
• Future Skills Questionnaire:

• Year 7 (Transition to KS3)
• Year 9/10 Post Options
• Year 11 Post Mocks

For more details please visit our TAS Careers website

https://sites.google.com/tas-tkat.org/careers/