Neston Strategy September 2021

Careers Education Information and Guidance (CEIAG) Strategy 2021-22 Neston High School Authored by: Careers Lead Dr Zeyn Hyder-Wright SLT lead Amanda Lacey Governor Colin Randerson Revised on 21st September, 2021

Overall Aim We aim to develop confident learners with the skills to take ownership of their learning, who are proud of their achievements and are well prepared for working life in modern Britain. We want our students to be equipped with the skills and qualities needed to meet the opportunities, demands and challenges of the 21st Century within a changing world of work and employment.

“Good career guidance is the key to social mobility. It’s about showing young people- whatever their social or family background-the options open to them, and help them make the right choices to set them on the path to rewarding future careers” Good Careers Guidance, Gatsby Foundation Objectives • Students, from year 7 upwards, will participate in a programme of activities designed to provide them with the skills and experience to make informed decisions about their future career path.

• Students, teachers, parents and employers will understand how the career programme supports both the school strategic priorities and statutory guidelines.

• Students, teachers, parents and employers will have the opportunity to provide feedback to ensure the career programme is continuously evaluated to best meet the needs of all students.

Key Staff Dr Hyder-Wright is the careers lead for Neston High School. The role ensures that the school is compliant with the 8 Gatsby benchmarks, and that good careers guidance is being taught throughout the school. She is involved tin the strategic planning of careers provision across the years. She has an excellent knowledge of routes post-16 and post-18, and has formed excellent relationships with local employers and business in the Cheshire and Merseyside area to provide the school with excellent links. Links have also been made with the many local colleges and apprenticeship providers. We believe that establishing these inks allows our students to have access to the best opportunities for their future.

Mrs Lacey is the senior leader for careers education and information and guidance. She provides a link between the lead and Leadership/Governors. Strategic planning against the Gatsby benchmarks is shared with the Head Teacher and Governing body and the performance against them is tracked over time. The CEIAG link governor is Colin Randerson.

Paula Owens is our independent careers advisor who works with our students to give impartial and independent careers advice to them.

Emma Dalzell is our Careers and Enterprise coordinator, who gives us advice and guidance on how to build links with local businesses and how best to achieve the benchmarks.

All teaching and support staff share a responsibility to promote the importance of careers education in school to help students realise their aspirations. Further information about how the careers programme. The curriculum map, feedback from events and other careers related information may be found on the school careers website, specifically here: https://www.nestonhigh.com/page/?title=Careers&pid=176.

Key Contact information Careers Coordinator: Zeyn Hyder-Wright Telephone: 0151 336 3902 Email: hyderz@nestonhigh.com Senior Leadership: Amanda Lacey Telephone: 0151 336 3902 Governor: Paul Sweetman

Commented [MT1]: I appreciate this will be published on the school website but would it also be worth including reference to finding further information on the career tab on the website and attaching the links?

Commented [ED2R1]: Agree

Benchmark Explanations The Gatsby Benchmarks are a framework of 8 guidelines that define the best careers provision in schools and colleges. Our careers strategy is built around them and has been a great place to start when planning and improving our programme.

The Gatsby Benchmarks have a key role in: • • •

raising young people’s aspirations and promoting access to all career pathways enabling all young people to develop the skills and outlook they need to achieve career wellbeing, including adaptability and resilience Underpinning the Department for Education guidance to schools on meeting their statutory responsibility for careers guidance.

Here is a detailed explanation of the Gatsby benchmarks: Gatsby Benchmark What is needed Every school and college should have an embedded programme of career education 1. Stable and guidance that is known and understood by students, parents, teachers, Career Programme governors and employers.

Every school should have a stable, structured careers programme that has the explicit backing of the senior management team and an appropriately trained person responsible for it.

The careers programme should be published on the school’s website so students, parents, teachers and employers can access and understand it.

The programme should be regularly evaluated with feedback from students, parents, teachers and employers as part of the evaluation process.

By the age of 14, all students should have accessed and used information about 2. Learning from career career paths and the labour market to inform their own decisions on study options. and labour Parents should be encouraged to access and use information about labour markets and future study options to support their children. market information 3. Addressing the needs of each pupil

4. Linking curriculum

Students have different career guidance needs at different stages. Opportunities for advice and support should be tailored to each of these stages, with diversity and equality embedded in the school’s careers programme A school’s careers programme should actively seek to challenge stereotypical thinking and raise aspirations.

Schools should keep systematic records of the individual advice given to each student and subsequent agreed decisions. All students should have access to these records to support their career development.

Schools should collect and maintain accurate data for each student on their education, training or employment destinations for at least three years after they leave school.

All teachers link curriculum learning with careers.

Science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) subject teachers highlight the relevance of STEM subjects for a wide range of future career paths.

learning to careers

By the age of 14, every pupil has had the opportunity to learn how the different STEM subjects help people to gain entry to a wide range of careers.

All subject teachers emphasise the importance of succeeding in English and Maths.

5. Encounters Every student should have multiple opportunities to learn from employers about work, employment and the skills that are valued in the workplace. with Students should participate in at least one meaningful encounter with an employer employers every year from the age of 11. and employees Work with your regional LEP to make sure you are aligning to the strategic economic plan of the region.

6. Experiences Every student should have first-hand experiences of the workplace through work visits, work shadowing and/ or work experience so they can explore their career of workplaces opportunities. By the age of 16, every student should have had at least one experience of a workplace, additional to any part-time jobs they may have. By the age of 18, every student should have had one further such experience, additional to any part-time jobs they may have.

7. Encounters All students should understand the full range of learning opportunities that are available to them. This includes academic and vocational routes and learning in with Further and schools, colleges, universities and the workplace.

By the age of 16, every pupil should have had a meaningful encounter with a Higher provider of the full range of learning opportunities.

Education By the age of 18, all students who are considering applying for university should have had at least two visits to universities to meet staff and students.

Every student should have opportunities for guidance interviews with a career 8. Personal adviser. Every student should have at least one of these interviews by the age of 16, guidance and the opportunity for a further interview by the age of 18.

For a more detailed explanation of the Gatsby benchmarks and the Gatsby foundation please see our website, or, alternatively, please go to: https://www.gatsby.org.uk/education Action Plan to Achieve Benchmarks We will do this by looking at: Destinations data Labour Market Information Careers incorporated into the curriculum Feedback on CEIAG through surveys/questionnaires/meetings with staff, parents, employers and students.

Commented [ED3]: This isn’t just staff, but also parents, employers and students

Benchmark 1: A stable careers programme Key points of Benchmarks

Action Plan and KPIs

Every school should have a stable, structured careers programme that has the explicit backing of the senior management team and an appropriately trained person responsible for it.

The careers programme is backed by a member of the Senior Leadership Team, Amanda Lacey, and the Head, Keith Simpson. A careers lead is in place to oversee careers provision, Zeyn HyderWright, and a governor, Colin Randerson has been allocated. Zeyn Hyder-Wright and Amanda Lacey have the overall responsibility to ensure that the 8 Gatsby benchmarks are being achieved.

Benchmarks are measured against key performance indicators which are stated in the action plan here. Overall, all 3 have the overall responsibility for achieving the Gatsby Benchmarks.

The careers programme should be published on the school’s website so students, parents, teachers and employers can access and understand it.

The programme should be regularly evaluated with feedback from students, parents, teachers and employers as part of the evaluation process.

Covid update:

The careers programme will be published on the website and will include departmental CEIAGs. This strategy will be available on the school website alongside the provider access policy and will be easily accessible. Careers information is regularly emailed to parents/carers/employers. Further career guidance as well as tutor group Whistle-stop jobs PowerPoints will be included on the website, alongside information on Unifrog and Start profile which are excellent platforms to explore different careers and labour market information, as well as the routes needed to achieve them.

More information will be available on the website. The careers bulletin is available on the school website. Parents/carers are given correspondence about this, with an opportunity to log on with a guest account.

The programme will be reviewed annually incorporating feedback from different events from teachers, employers and parents in the form of questionnaires and surveys. The success of this programme will be measured through feedback and improvements will be made every year based on the feedback.

The careers programme is a working document that will change according to new guidelines from the DfE and feedback from students and staff. Implementation of the taught programme will be monitored by completing learning walks and student voice. The success criteria would be that 100% of students will go into education/work post-16 and post-18. This will be measured through collecting destinations data and questionnaire feedback from students and parents.

Covid measures meant that we were unable to implement some of the sessions in the IT suites to log onto Unifrog and Start Profile during 2020-21. Some events were also moved online for example, mock interviews, careers fairs, daily virtual work experience sessions instead of actual work experience etc. Feedback is very important for improvements, and as events start to resume we endeavor to receive regular feedback from carers and staff.

Commented [MT4]: Is it worth clarifying their role here? For example ‘who hold overall responsibly for achieving the Gatsby Benchmarks’ Commented [ED5R4]: Agree Commented [ED6R5]: Agree – the role is specifically defined Commented [MT7]: How are they measured on their delivery of this careers programme?

Commented [ED8R7]: Needs reference to the KPIs Commented [ED9R7]:

Commented [MT10]: Can you explain what these are for parents? Or maybe link to the explanation page on their website?

Commented [MT11]: Can you include a success measure e.g.

The success of the programme will be measured through destination data and questionnaire feedback from students and parents

Benchmark 2: Learning from career and labour market information Key points of Benchmarks

Action Plan and KPIs

By the age of 14, all students should have accessed and used information about career paths and the labour market to inform their own decisions on study options.

All students in KS3 will all have a “Start” profile where they can discover labour market information and how to access their chosen careers. They also can access labour information every 2 weeks for different careers in a session called “Whistle-stop jobs” delivered by tutors after the Autumn term. These also contain information about job projections and gender demographics. They will have PD sessions on Start profile every year in KS3, from Year 7-9. Students will fill out “My top jobs” which contains information about salary, location of jobs, and qualifications needed to enter the professions from their top 5 searches after reviewing and completing their likes/dislikes. They will keep this document in their school folders and will amend them every year. Tutors will ensure students are completing the forms by monitoring them in lessons.

All students at KS4 and KS5 will have a Unifrog account where they can access information about the labour market and universities/apprenticeships and work.

Tutors can identify who is accessing the platforms on teacher accounts and will ensure that each students accesses each platform 3 times per academic year.

Commented [ED12R11]: Agree – needs to be a measure against it

“Where next” recorded Powerpoint was shown to all years detailing various options post-16 and what LMI is. This is available on the website for parents to access for information.

Parents should be encouraged to access and use information about labour markets and future study options to support their children.

Covid update:

Parents are sent a letter with information about logging onto Unifrog and Start, and details on how they can access the platforms for themselves in order to support their ward. Parents/carers are also sent a newsletter and links to access up-to-date LMI (which can also be found on our website here Neston High School - Local LMI 2021). Careers information can also be given to carers at the yearly information evenings where independent careers advice is available from an adviser. The careers lead also gives a presentation about careers opportunities and what LMI is to year 9 parents/carers at options evening.

Covid restrictions meant that many of the face-to-face parent events were cancelled. Correspondence was still sent out to parents/carers containing careers related information about virtual events, apprenticeship opportunities, LMI information etc. The “Where next” recorded Powerpoint has also been uploaded on the Website for students AND parents/carers to view. Students were unable to

Commented [MT13]: Could you include a measure such as ‘career information will be discussed during at least one parents evening per year Commented [ED14R13]: Agree Commented [MT15]: Can you also provide useful links for parents on the website? Eg http://www.lmiforall.org.uk/ Commented [ED16R15]: Agree

have access to IT suites to log onto their accounts during the pandemic.

Benchmark 3: Addressing the needs of each pupil.

Key points of Benchmarks Diversity and equality should be embedded in the school’s careers programme. The careers programme should actively seek to challenge stereotypical thinking and raise aspirations.

Action Plan and KPIs External speakers from the LGBTQ community are invited to deliver sessions to year groups and topics surrounding LGBTQ causes are discussed in PSHE. External speakers deliver talks who challenge stereotypes such as a male A+E nurse who also delivers a talk on knife crime. Female STEM employees attend careers fairs. We also have a female police officer who delivers talks on being safe online. Students will present their thoughts about diversity and equality in the workplace during PSHE and homework. Year 8 look at “Challenging Discrimination” in half-term 5 PSHE Students also access gender information in different careers on Start profile and in the whistle-stop jobs Powerpoint delivered by tutors in the Spring term. The school has a Pride group who meet weekly (started in September 2021, formally the Equalities Club) for students who want to support or are a part of the LGBTQ community can go.

Schools should keep systematic records of the individual advice given to each student and subsequent agreed decisions. All students should have access to these records to support their career development.

All students will log at least one interaction with an employer, interview, work experience, careers advisor meeting and/or trip on their Unifrog accounts in Year 10 onwards. ALL students in Year 11 and 12 are given an appointment with an independent careers adviser. The adviser creates a bespoke “action plan” which is emailed to individual student and the careers lead. The document is placed on a Careers Team file for tutors to access during 1-2-1 sessions with tutors. The adviser summarizes the key points and targets from the meeting. Feedback is given by each student on the usefulness of the appointment in termly reports, as well as a report with the numbers of students who were seen from each year group and targets for the following year. This feedback is available on the school careers website under “feedback”.

Schools should collect and maintain accurate data for each student on their education, training or employment destinations for at least three years after they leave school.

Destinations data is collected by dedicated administrative staff and a destinations report is compiled by our careers adviser Paula Owens. Destination data will be available on the

website and at year 11 options evening to parents and students.

Covid update Due to Covid It has been challenging to obtain destination data for up to 3 years of a student leaving, but all the data we have been able to collect can be found on the website. The young person’s service has all the information but is not allowed to share due to GDPR. Dur5ing the first lockdown, rather than having face-to-face appointments with an adviser, this initially had to be done over the phone. Some students did not always answer, so in the year 2019, approx. 70% of the cohort had their appointments. Appointments were more successful when carried out over Teams in lockdown 3, however appointments were restricted to 6/day to account for technical issues. This meant that the Year 11 cohort in 2020 were not all seen, however those who stayed on in year 12 will be.

Students can now look forward to a “normal” PSHE and careers curriculum, available on the website.

Benchmark 4: Linking curriculum to careers.

Key points of Benchmarks All teachers link curriculum learning with careers.

Action Plan and KPIs All subjects will deliver a stand-alone lesson on careers in their subjects at the start of year 9. Many departments have posters/displays which link their subject to a range of careers.

Subjects also organize trips/external speakers/workshops.

This information will be available on the careers section of the website. In the penultimate week of school, all students will have a collapsed timetable. Each year group will get different opportunities; Year 10 and 12 go on their work experience placements, whilst year 8 and 9 work on an enterprise project and can take part in daily trips/activities.

In the last week of term year 7 go on a whole year camping trip. They are given a brief by the camp manager and are asked to design a Powerpoint to help advertise the camp facilities drawing from their experiences.

Students from every year learn about “Living in the wider world” in PSHE which links to careers (plan available on

website). The PSHE curriculum also allows students to learn about the important skills needed to be a good employer/employee such as having positive relationships, being healthy in mind and body, challenging discrimination, stress management and exploring drug/alcohol misuse and links with stress/anxiety and understanding self-worth.

Science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) subject teachers highlight the relevance of STEM subjects for a wide range of future career paths. By the age of 14, every pupil has had the opportunity to learn how the different STEM subjects help people to gain entry to a wide range of careers.

All subject teachers emphasize the importance of succeeding in English and Maths.

Covid update

STEM club is open to all students. Display walls will be maintained annually which highlight jobs in the Sciences are within the department and in classrooms. All student will be invited annually to a Science trips, such as ScienceLive, The World Museum, Chester Zoo, CERN, Chemistry at Work and trips to scientific labs to encourage interest in STEM subjects and how the translate into future careers. External speakers such as lecturers from LSTM, Liverpool University and Chester Zoo are invited in to talk to the students. The Medical Mavericks and Nurse Rob also deliver assemblies. Students are encouraged to enter competitions such as Young analyst, Salter’s competition and Cheshire Challenge. All students are invited to attend the careers fair which has a variety of STEM exhibitors. All year 8 and 9 students are invited to take part in a science project in enrichment week. Assemblies from professionals from Health and Social care are delivered to students from years 7-11.

Science works closely with Maths, as the GCSEs/A-level exams contain a large mathematical component and contains graph drawing, rearranging equations and calculating the mean. The literacy policy is followed in all subjects. Teachers are required to check spelling and grammar when marking books. In English there is targeted and optional revision sessions.

Students can also access revision guides – which they can buy in school. In English there are exam focused lessons from the beginning of year 11. All students attend the “Poetry Live trip” - where students get to hear the named poets talking about their poems.

There are targeted and optional revision sessions for students in Maths after school and some students are given intervention lessons in Maths who are achieving below their expected grades.

Restrictions on speakers coming in has meant that some of the experience students have had with external parties/speakers/workshops have moved to an online forum.

Eg. Year 12 had an interactive Amazon experience where they

were shown around an Amazon warehouse by an employee and were able to ask questions.

Trips were not permitted by the local authority and clubs, DoE and sports extracurricular activities have only started running again (September, 2021).

Benchmark 5: Encounters with employers and employees.

Key points of Benchmarks

Action Plan and KPIs

Every student should have multiple opportunities to learn from employers about work, employment and the skills that are valued in the workplace. Students should participate in at least one meaningful encounter with an employer every year from the age of 11.

Years 7-11 have live virtual assemblies from colleges (eg Cheshire, Wirral and Reeceheath), Business owners (eg ErinMay Beauty), the Army, Universities (eg John Moores, Edge Hill), speaker from Health and Social care, Medical Mavericks, Apprenticeship (from ASK) information and more (note: Army cannot present to Year 7 and 8 due to mandate on child soldiers). ASK deliver an assembly about apprenticeships to years 12-13 and then deliver a workshop to year 12-13 who need help to go through the application process. In order to make encounters more meaningful, tutors are given information about each speaker beforehand to talk through and discuss with tutees, like a slide with a brief introduction to the speaker and video. Tutees are encouraged to think of questions to ask speaker. On the day, after speakers are finished and questions answered, tutors are encouraged to open a discussion about what students have learnt. At the end of term, students will feedback on each speaker. Cheshire College are invited to deliver an assembly specifically about the introduction of “T-Levels and what they are” at the beginning of the autumn term Year 10 and 12 will have a work placement (discussed in benchmark 6).

Careers fair for all years, restrictions permitting. Students will fill out a booklet before and after the careers fair to make the experience more meaningful.

After work placements, each Year 10 and 12 students has a 20-min mock Interview with local employer. Students are prepared by being given sample questions beforehand and

given an opportunity to practice by role playing an interviewer and then interviewee and offering feedback. They are also given an assembly about interview skills, employability and they watch videos about being interview ready. After the interview (10mins) students are given the opportunity to talk about how they did and get verbal feedback (10mins) from the employer. They also get written feedback (after being reviewed by the Careers Lead). Students are also taught about employability and transferable skills in the PSHE curriculum.

These activities in PSHE and getting feedback are not only for practice but to allow students to build resilience and to be able to hear feedback, and use it as a tool to improve.

Students are also able to make connections with different employers/employees (eg banker from Natwest in Maths) during their subjects on trips and engaging with guest visits (eg a professional actor in drama). Some of these are logged on the website, albeit pre-pandemic.

Work with your regional LEP to make sure you are aligning to the strategic economic plan of the region.

Covid update

Regular meetings with our Enterprise Co-ordinator Emma Dalzell to set targets about how to better achieve the benchmarks. A compass evaluation is carried out each term and improvements can be made. She also is able to discuss changes from the DoE with careers provision. The careers lead also attends meetings after school run by the “Pledge” who work to make links between local businesses and schools.

This benchmark was the most affected by the restrictions brought on from the pandemic. In the first lockdown, students were not able to access live sessions. This changed in the third lockdown where students in Year 10 and 11 were able to access a session from the Medical Mavericks and years 7-9 were able to attend a virtual careers fair run by LearnLive.

Both sessions were interactive where students to could pose questions to the speakers, however, as they were at home, some students did not prepare for the sessions and therefore prepare a question.

Year 10 and year 12 work experience/mock interviews: Due to tighter restrictions posed in school towards the end of the academic year in 2021, even the virtual work experience programme that needed few skeleton staff from MPLoy to run was postponed. Students did however still watch the videos on LMI, employability and interview preparation and practice filling out an application form and logging qualifications. Each student filled out careers work booklet.

Commented [ED17]: I would say ‘Enterprise Co-ordinator’ here as that is a nationally recognised role.

The mock interviews were run virtually on Teams. As students did not have a work placement to talk about, each student responded to a fake jobs advert from their choice of 10, and used the criteria to fill out an application form. This application form was sent to an employer who would be their allocated interviewer. This allowed some students who had a STEM interest, to be interviewed by someone from a STEM career, students who wanted to enlist in the Army, had an interviewer from the Army, etc. Feedback from students, teachers and employers is available on the website (currently awaiting parent feedback results).

Now, we have fully embraced the virtual platform and have used it to access more year groups and more speakers.

Benchmark 6: Experience with work places.

Key points of Benchmarks

Action Plan and KPIs

Every student should have first-hand experiences of the workplace through work visits, work shadowing and/ or work experience so they can explore their career opportunities.

By the age of 16, every student should have had at least one experience of a workplace, additional to any part-time jobs they may have. By the age of 18, every student should have had one further such experience, additional to any part-time jobs they may have.

Year 10 and 12 will have a work placement. Every student is supported to arrange a work placement themselves well in advance. MPloy and Neston High work extremely closely to ensure every student finds a placement in a student cannot organize a placement. If in some circumstances a placement falls through, we will endeavor to find opportunities for these students to visit workplaces by taking advantage of our relationships with local businesses brought about by the Pledge partnership, which will be organized by our Enterprise Co-Ordinator, Emma Dalzell.

Covid update

Full virtual work experience postponed: Due to tighter restrictions posed in school towards the end of the academic year in 2021, even the virtual work experience programme that needed few skeleton staff from MPLoy to run was postponed. Students did however still watch the bespoke videos made by MPloy on LMI, employability and interview preparation and practice filling out an application form and logging qualifications. Each student filled out careers work booklet.

Benchmark 7: Encounters with further and higher education.

Key points of Benchmarks

Action Plan and KPIs

All students should understand the full range of learning opportunities that are available to them. This includes academic and vocational routes and learning in schools, colleges, universities and the workplace.

By the age of 16, every pupil should have had a meaningful encounter with a provider of the full range of learning opportunities.

Years 7-11 have live virtual assemblies from colleges (eg Cheshire, Wirral and Reeceheath), Universities (eg John Moores, Edge Hill), In order to make encounters more meaningful, tutors are given information about each institution beforehand to talk through and discuss with tutees, like a slide with a brief introduction to the speaker and video. Tutees are encouraged to think of questions to ask speaker. On the day, after speakers are finished and questions answered, tutors are encouraged to open a discussion about what students have learnt. At the end of term, students will feedback on each speaker. Cheshire College are invited to deliver an assembly specifically about the introduction of “T-Levels and what they are” at the beginning of the autumn term. Year 11 students will hear from an alternative sixth form in the Autumn 2 term.

By the age of 18, all students who are considering applying for university should have had at least two visits to universities to meet staff and students.

Students in year 10 and 11 are encouraged to go to open days for colleges and speaker to staff. School have organized a trip for 40 students to engage in taster activities in their chosen subject (Cheshire College).

Edge Hill University finance department deliver an assembly about managing finances in University and explain how student loans work.

All year 12 students go to a UCAS convention Manchester University which have stands from different apprenticeship and Universities.

Students are given the information on Teams and are encouraged to make a selection of stands they would like to visit and plan questions to ask. They are then advised to go to open days of their preferred choices. All students are expected to log every encounter and experience onto Unifrog where it can be monitored.

Commented [MT18]: How do you measure that they’ve had 2 visits? Is this within their career profile

All of year 10 or 11 are taken on an aspirational trip to university where they are given a presentation about the courses on offer and university life, they visit some departments and the guild of students (Liverpool University).

All of year 12 will go to Edge Hill University to see the campus and engage in fun activities.

Covid Update

During the height of the pandemic, trips were prohibited and no visits were allowed. We were able to organized virtual assemblies with colleges and Univerisities towards the end of the year (2021).

Benchmark 8: Personal guidance.

Key points of Benchmarks

Action Plan and KPIs

Every student should have opportunities for guidance interviews with a career adviser.

All year 10 and 12 students will have a 1-2-1 careers appointment with an independent careers advisor, employed by MPloy. To ensure all students are seen, students will be given appointments per tutor group, with PP and SEND students being seen first. Advisers make the careers lead aware of absences which are monitored, and students will be “mopped” up at the end of the academic year (or study leave). Advisers work closely with the careers lead to flag up concerns or issues for the careers lead to act upon (to discuss with tutors/RSLs). Often, follow-up appointments are issued for additional support. We aim to offer each student in year 10 and 12 a careers appointment before they leave school.

Every student should have at least one of these interviews by the age of 16, and the opportunity for a further interview by the age of 18.

We also run a “as-and-when” careers appointment service, where tutors can ask the careers lead to make an appointment for any student struggling with career options. They can be from any year, but usually from year 9 upwards.

Students who are flagged by the Chester and Cheshire West local authority are given careers adviser

appointments organized by YPS. This can be done on the phone, virtually and/or face-to-face. These can be students with a ECHP or risk of NEET. Wirral students have appointments organized by the careers lead in school.

Advisers give me termly reports of individual success stories for students. In this report, priorities and areas for developments are laid down. The report also details actions from last term. This allows me to act upon any potential issues to make the experience better for both adviser and student. Students are asked to feedback their experiences, which is available on the website.

Covid Update

During the pandemic, appointments were made on the phone as students were not permitted to use video calling. Some students did not answer the phone, resulting in a lower uptake of appointments for year 11 and 12 that year. Advisers were not allowed into school so when students returned the phone appointments persisted. When students were able to access Teams better in lockdown 3, advisers used Teams to conduct appointments. This resulted in a more successful uptake.

At the start of the academic year in September 2021, advisers were permitted to come into school so a room was booked in reception to conduct appointments.

Uptake so far has been good, with 86% attendance in 3 day sessions (3 were absent from school). To promote appointments students are given an appointment slip the day prior, and tutors are a valuable resource. We find that students want the appointments and find them useful.

In Summary: We are committed to providing excellent careers education to all our students. We endeavor to meet all 8 Gatsby benchmarks by focusing on the following: 1) A whole-school approach-whole school and curriculum careers education with be implemented.

2) Regular review-against all 8 benchmarks via feedback from staff, students, parents and Governors. All feedback will be used to inform us on how to improve each year and the plan will be adapted.

3) An informed approach- using local labour market information, destination data, enterprise partnerships and other information to ensure students are receiving current and up-to-date careers information.

For more information, please contact Dr Hyder-Wright: hyderz@nestonhigh.com