Careers Education, Information, Advice and Guidance (CEIAG) at Valley Gardens Middle School.
We are actively engaging with the nationally respected Gatsby Benchmarks (https://www.gatsby.org.uk/education/focus-areas/good-career-guidance) and welcome any input from parents and carers.
The Gatsby Benchmarks provide the structure to our growing careers
programme which aims to give all our pupils the advice and guidance they
need to make informed decisions about their futures.
How is the careers provision assessed at Valley Gardens?
● Termly review of the school’s achievement of the Gatsby
Benchmarks, with Careers Lead and SLT link
(Ms Samantha Wilson). Evidence is recorded, progress against the
benchmarks is tracked, and used to inform planning for the
following academic year.
● Employers and External providers delivering sessions to pupils
provide feedback through NTLT regarding relevant knowledge
and attitude of children.
● Evaluations by staff and pupils following any Employer or External
provision to ensure only high quality sessions are repeated.
● The Careers Lead and SLT link meet to assess and improve the
quality of current provision and effectiveness of future provision.
The school careers provision is reviewed to ensure it is fit for purpose and takes account of local, national and international needs and developments in labour markets.
Pupils, parents, staff and employers can access this document to get an
overview of the current provision and to find out more about careers at
our school.
An overview of our careers program can be viewed below:
INFORMATION FOR STUDENTS
Good quality careers education raises the aspirations of all young people. It will increase motivation by linking activities in school with preparation for life. CEIAG will therefore contribute to raising student achievement, help students focus on their longer-term career ambitions and ensure an equality of opportunity for all.
At Valley Gardens, we provide a comprehensive CEIAG programme to students in every year group. This includes aspects of work-related learning along with enterprise activities, experiences of the workplace and teaches students to reflect on and evaluate their skills and competencies. We encourage children to grab every opportunity with both hands as it is never too early to start thinking about their future pathways.
INFORMATION FOR PARENTS
As a parent or carer, you have a leading role when your child is making decisions about their potential future career. That is why it’s important to be prepared and feel confident when they come to you for advice.
In Years 5 and 6 we want pupils to develop an awareness of careers and what people in their community do. This prepares pupils and supports their transition for further careers investigation in Key Stage 3. In Years 7 and 8 pupils will look in greater depth at the world of work, meet more employers and develop their own employability skills. Young people today have more choices than ever before about what to do in the future but there are a number of factors affecting these choices. Youth unemployment, an increasingly competitive job market and fees for higher education all impact on a young person’s future, making it even more important for them to make the right choices for their education, training and employment.
How can you help?
As they make choices and plans for the future, young people need support from the people who know them best; their families. We encourage you to talk to your son/daughter about careers they are interested in. Find out what they know already and encourage them to explore the online careers resource,Unifrog, or even speak to people about their careers.
Please follow the School Twitter feed for updates to careers news and further advice. The twitter feed will retweet helpful information for parents and pupils too. Please get in touch if you have anything to offer our CEIAG programme, particularly our Careers Day in Year 8.
Other Useful Careers Links:
● The National Careers Service (including a free chatline) – Click
Here
● Tyne and Wear Connexions service (local advice) – Click Here
● iCould (careers videos) – Click Here
● Job Centre Plus (job hunting and applying) – Click Here
● Apprenticeships (apprenticeships and traineeships) – Click Here
● Labour Market Northeast (shifts and trends) – Click Here
INFORMATION FOR EMPLOYERS
We have built up a large bank of employers that work with us to provide careers related events, workshops and trips as part of Gatsby benchmark 5 (Encounters with Employers) however we are always looking to expand our workforce and we’d love to work with you. We work with self employed people, small businesses and large multinationals so if you would like to be part of our employer community, please contact our career lead Samantha Wilson on [email protected] if you’d be interested in complimenting our careers offer.
How might supporting a local school benefit my business?
- Can helps towards fulfilling your corporate social responsibility
- Helps to raise awareness of your industry and to inspire the next generation
- Increases awareness of your business within the local community
- Can help to shape the skill set of the next generation
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Provider Access Statement
This section of the website 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.
All pupils in years 7-8 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. (not applicable to middle schools).
Please refer to the Provider Access Policy below that shows the way in which education and training providers should get in touch with the school in order to gain access to pupils and/or parents to inform them about further opportunities. The school will then work with providers in order to identify the most effective opportunity for them to share information about education and training opportunities.