CAREERS
At Beal High School, we are committed to creating and delivering high quality careers education that ensures 100% student progression to high quality destinations, whether it is employability, apprenticeships or higher education.
INTENT: INTRODUCTION
We want our students to be:
- Successful learners who enjoy learning, make progress and achieve their full potential.
- Confident individuals who are able to lead safe, healthy and fulfilling lives
- Responsible citizens who make a positive contribution to society.
We provide opportunities for students to develop careers awareness, employability skills, labour market knowledge and resolve to become successful in their chosen field. Our school’s high quality and comprehensive careers education fosters high aspirations and enables our students to become happy, ambitious and successful citizens in society. Our school’s unique demographic and subsequent student need, means the quality of careers education information, advice and guidance provision is personalised and remains high quality, led by an Assistant Principal Careers Lead who manages the Careers and Progression Mentor. Examples of this include local employers delivering career presentations, vocational work experience and Oxbridge, Medical, Dentistry and Veterinary (MDV) Science groups.
We have an unrelenting ambition to improve social mobility for every student, irrespective of the disadvantage they face, recognising that the careers education and support they receive will have a life changing positive impact. Our students are encouraged to develop their sense of self-worth by developing essential work related and life competencies and by playing a positive role in contributing to school life and the wider community. Where a student is identified as at risk of becoming NEET (not in education, employment or training), we will intervene and expediate a one-to-one information, advice and guidance session with a qualified careers advisor, with ongoing monitoring and communication with the child’s family and pastoral team.
We are dedicated to providing students with an extensive range of insights into local, regional, national and global labour markets, providing them with an insight in a diverse range of progression routes, e.g., higher education, vocational routes such as apprenticeships or directly into employment. Our careers programmes are dynamic and change according to the changing needs of our students and local and national labour market needs.
All pupils in Years 7 to 13 will have independent careers guidance. A range of education and training providers will have access to all year 8 to 13 pupils to inform them about approved technical education qualifications and apprenticeships through a range of experiences such as assemblies, workshops, events or talks. The DfE supports the TFA through The Careers & Enterprise Company the National Careers Service who provide impartial careers information, advice and guidance to our pupils, teachers and parents/carers. In addition we work closely with external business contacts, higher education outreach and apprenticeship providers.
IMPLEMENTATION: BEAL HIGH SCHOOL CAREERS PROVISION
The Gatsby Benchmarks are used as a strong model to underpin and enhance our careers provision at Beal High School. Our careers programme is delivered through different strands of Personal Development Programme. A broad range of approaches, activities, events, communication channels and external partner workshops will be employed to provide students with a solid foundation of careers understanding and skills to develop further. Each strand is delivered through a variety of experiences, ranging from areas of the taught curriculum, to extracurricular opportunities and trips. The division into strands serves the main purpose of supporting mapping and evaluation of our current provision, and it is recognised that some activities or experiences may contribute to some or even all the strands.
The careers education strand is an age-appropriate sequence of lessons on specific careers themes. For example, in year 8 students are taught how to be self-reflective and consider the range of jobs available, so that they can begin to think about what type of career they may wish to pursue in the future. A year 10 student would receive lessons on how to write a CV and prepare for an interview for work experience. The sequencing and content are based on the Career Development Institute’s (CDI) framework. Sessions are planned centrally and delivered as part of the personal development tutor programme.
The employability skills strand is a sequential and age-appropriate series of lessons developing skills in the following areas: presenting, listening, teamwork, leadership creativity, aiming high, staying positive and problem solving. This has been adapted from the skills builder partnership, which are based on the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) most desired employability skills.
Careers across the curriculum is embedded in our CALIBRE curriculum framework (click here for more detail) and it emphasises the importance of careers within individual subject areas. Heads of Department (HODs) have mapped their curriculums against the CALIBRE framework and so have identified careers links, in particular with Gatsby Benchmarks 4 and 5.
IMPACT
- 100% progression of all pupils , whether it is employment, training or higher education.
- Meeting all Gatsby benchmarks, with progression in compliance demonstrated in Compass.
- Tracking destinations data of all pupils in Year 11 and Year 13.
- Monitoring and improvement in recording skills for employability and progression through Unifrog ensuring all learners develop into confident individuals, successful learners and responsible citizens.
- Widening participation through robustly supporting social mobility through ensuring that high numbers of students move on to destinations within universities and higher education institutions or onto further training .
- Delivery of Oxbridge/MDV masterclasses and EPQ programme using e-platforms at Beal Sixth Form.
- Very strong and improving retention at all levels: e.g. Y13 destination 95%+ and improving Y11 to Y12 retention 39%+ (2021) and Y13 maintain 0%
- Careers surveys with pupils and parents and staff feedback will illustrate progression in attitudes and confidence during the year. Improved self-confidence and engagement with school and extra-curricular careers related opportunities will be reflected in positive snapshots, progress data and attitude scores.
PROVIDER ACCESS STATEMENT
Introduction
This policy statement sets out the school’s arrangements for managing the access of providers to pupils at the school for the purpose of giving them information about the provider’s education or training offer. This complies with the school’s legal obligations under Section 42B of the Education Act 1997.
Pupil entitlement
All pupils in years 8 to 13 are entitled:
- to find out about technical education qualifications and apprenticeships opportunities, as part of a careers programme which provides information on the full range of education and training options available at each transition point;
- to hear from a range of local providers about the opportunities they offer, including technical education and apprenticeships – through options events, assemblies and group discussions and taster events;
- to understand how to make applications for the full range of academic and technical courses. Management of provider access requests
Procedure
A provider wishing to request access should contact Jag Singh by email, admin@bealhighschool.co.uk, or call 0208 551 4954.
Opportunities for access
A number of events, integrated into the school careers programme, will offer providers an opportunity to come into school to speak to pupils or their parents or carers. Please speak to our Careers Leader to identify the most suitable opportunity for you.
Premises and facilities
The school will make the main hall, classrooms or private meeting rooms available for discussions between the provider and students, as appropriate to the activity. The school will also make available AV and other specialist equipment to support provider presentations. This will all be discussed and agreed in advance of the visit with the Careers Leader or a member of their team. Providers are welcome to leave a copy of their prospectus or other relevant course literature at the Careers Resource Library , which is managed by the school librarian. The Resource Centre is available to all students at lunch and break times.