Higher Education and CareersPlanning for the future

• Pupils in Year 7 undertake a mini MBA in the summer term to build career readiness. They develop strap lines, create feasibility studies, rate the originality and popularity of products, engage in marketing and ultimately bring their products to a school wide audience at the summer garden party.
• Year 7 are taught Applied Drama which aims to build communication skills and readiness for the workplace through weekly lessons. Year 7 focuses on self-regulation considering how the brain responds to stress and fear. They also complete a module on collaboration and recognising character traits.
• Year 7 take part in a form tutor led introduction to using Unifrog and Morrisby which are platforms to connect pupils with careers and higher education. Both platforms are compliant with the Gatsby Benchmarks.
• As part of their PSHE Programme, Year 7 pupils engage in sessions on: Understanding Rights and Responsibilities, including those in the workplace; Listening and empathy skills, including active listening; Stereotypes, bias and unconscious bias; Growth mindset and resilience; 2010 Equality Act, including protected characteristics; and Super skills and attributes – building career readiness

• The whole year group engages in food and nutrition pop ups as part of their lessons in Design and Food technology. They create the products and market them to the school community. They are set a brief – in 2025 the brief was to produce a high protein dessert.The pupils gain feedback from their customers to hone their products and use customer sales to judge consumer acceptability.
• Year 8 are taught Applied Drama which aims to build communication skills and readiness for the workplace through weekly lessons. Year 8 focuses on active listening.
• Year 8 have tutor led sessions based on UniFrog based on exploring pathways and using the activities, competencies and interaction functions

• Year 9 are taught Applied Drama which aims to build communication skills and readiness for the workplace through weekly lessons. Year 9 focuses on Imposter Syndrome and resilience.
• Year 9 have tutor led sessions using the Unifrog Platform on how to choose GCSEs. They have an assembly on this topic and a member of higher education and careers attends form-times to take questions from students about their GCSE choices in relation to higher education and careers.
• Year 9 have a tutor led form time on key skills employers are looking for using LMIs and World Economic Forum Projections.
• Year 9 engage with sessions on problem solving as part of their PSHE programme.
• As part of their PSHE programme, Year 9 have sessions on: 2010 Equality Act; Critical Thinking; and Problem Solving

• Pupils can sign up for the Spring Term Working Lunches Programme
• Pupils can attend any Undiscovered Subjects Taster Lectures they have an interest in
• Pupils are invited to the University Fair which allows pupils to interact with UK, European and US universities as well as join talks such as degree apprenticeships, US financing and the realities of applying to Europe
• Pupils are invited to attend Careers Evening
• Year 10 have a series of off timetable events during Careers Week including: degree apprenticeship sessions, LMIs and understanding trends in the Labour Market, Careers in the Arts, working in Medicine and related fields, making good use of the summer break to prepare for the future, using Ikigai to find a fulfilling careers and working on the freelance sector. In addition, a carousel of enrichment sessions takes place where pupils engage in a topic outside the classroom to build curiosity, creativity and resilience and give them inspiration for the TED talks they will create.
• Year 10 and 11 TED Talks – pupils will prepare a talk rooted in a subject discipline they enjoy to deliver to peers and staff. The focus will be on effective communication, clarity, evidence and perspective. Pupils are focusing on the difference between the written and spoken word, considering their tone and attempting to move away from note led presentations to confident, expert delivery.
• Year 11 undertakes 90 minute psychometric testing provided by Morrisby to give them an idea of their strength, competencies and preferences when it comes to deciding on future pathways. Pupils will then have an individual meeting with the Higher Education and Careers team as they consider their routes in the Sixth Form and beyond.
• As part of their PSHE Programme, pupils engage with the following sessions: Futures – Skills and attributes; Using your careers to make a difference; Stereotypes, bias and unconscious bias; and Finance sessions

• Pupils can sign up for the Spring Term Working Lunches Programme
• Pupils can attend any Undiscovered Subjects Taster Lectures they have an interest in
• Pupils are invited to the University Fair which allows pupils to interact with UK, European and US universities as well as join talks such as degree apprenticeships, US financing and the realities of applying to Europe
• Pupils are invited to attend Careers Evening
• Lower Sixth pupils have an individual meeting with a member of the Higher Education and Careers team in the spring term as they make decisions about their future pathways.
• Lower Sixth pupils, along with their parents, are invited to the Higher Education Forum as they begin to make decisions about their post school pathways
• The personal development curriculum in the Sixth Form allows pupils to engage with multiple sessions which help develop their careers portfolio including: The Oracy Imperative, Recognising Resilience, Dealing with Failure, Financial Literacy, Restorative Practice in the Workplace and living/working with others, Group Dynamics, teams and friendships in the Sixth Form and the workplace.
• Katherine Radice, Transition and Participation Advisor, Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, addresses pupils and parents in regards to transition to university.

We run several events to augment pupil’s knowledge of the world of work and higher education opportunities:

• Working Lunches: Throughout the spring term pupils hear from a range of professionals about their career paths
• Careers Evening
• University Fair which runs every other year with providers from the UK, US, Europe as well as organisations representing degree apprenticeships and gap year programmes
• Undiscovered Subjects Taster Lecture programme which introduces pupils to subjects they could study at university which are not typically taught in schools

Our Clubs and Societies attract excellent speakers who allow our students to connect to the world of work, for example Lord Vaizey addressed the Politics Society discussing working in politics and Amandine Ohayon, CEO of Stella McCartney addressed the Economics Society. The Iris Club used python to access Cern data and used CAD models to model the adoption of hydrogen fuel tanks to aeroplanes to minimise drag and Year 7 and 8 engaged with a robotics engineering challenge. Each year we seek to provide a number of such bespoke events in order to augment our student’s understanding of the range of opportunities they can engage with post school.

Our Year 10 pupils have some dedicated time off-timetable during National Careers Week each year to engage in a variety of sessions including: how to use Labour Market Information, Degree Apprenticeships, how to use a summer holiday and careers in Medicine and related industries. They also have the opportunity to attend subject specific enrichment sessions where they explore a certain aspect of a subject they enjoy in a more seminar style environment which is more typical of sixth form lessons. Year 10 also engaged in a TedEd project which fosters many career ready skills.

Encounters with employers happen throughout the year in Clubs and Societies. Year 10 and 12 prospective journalists had a problem statement set by Reuters to make their website more appealing to young people for example.

Year 11 and Year 12 pupils typically undertake work experience during the summer holidays. The Gatsby Benchmarks, which are the industry standard for careers education, recommend students have two weeks of engagement with the world of work before leaving school.

The Careers Co-ordinator helps pupils to consider how to source meaningful work experience. Students will have sessions on CV writing to assist with this and opportunities will be shared on google classroom. Pupils keep records of their interactions with the world of work, carefully considering what they have learned from their experiences.

• Pupils in Year 9 have assemblies and form time discussions with a member of the higher education and careers department as they make their GCSE choices
• All pupils in Year 11 complete psychometric testing (Morrisby) at the beginning of Year 11 which acts as a springboard for individual careers and higher education discussions.
• All pupils in Year 12 will have an individual meeting with a member of the higher education and careers team to help them hone university and careers choices.
• The department has an open door policy and we are always happy to give advice to pupils across all year groups when they need it.

The G&LFutures Programme consists of a series of projects that help students develop the skills they will need as they embark on their careers such as problem-solving, creative thinking, entrepreneurship, communication skills, and ideation.