Careers Education

Leaders have ensured that there is a comprehensive careers programme throughout school and this becomes very personalised to individual students’ needs in the sixth form.

— Ofsted, 2020

Careers Education is a planned activity that uses the context of work to develop knowledge, skills and understanding useful in work, including learning through the experience of work, learning about work and working practices and learning the skills for work.

We aim to provide a comprehensive programme of careers information, advice and guidance. This involves giving impartial information, advice, guidance and support to students which will allow them to reach well-informed, reasoned decisions about their future education and careers.

Access to Providers (Baker Clause)
Each year a number of key events take place. The aim is to give students meaningful encounters with employers and information about the different pathways that are available from Years 7 to 13. Colleges and training providers wishing to gain access to the school should read our policy statement below.

Our policy statement on provider access is available here.

At Wilson’s we believe that the best thing we do to prepare students for the work place is to help ensure that they attain first rate examination results, both at GCSE and A level. We are conscious that almost all of our students go on to study at university and that the quality of their examination results will determine their university choices and hence their future employment prospects.

However, we also understand the importance of developing employability skills (teamwork, effective presentations, time management, written and spoken communication, languages, computing, decision making and problem solving) and preparing the students for the workplace. One of our key aims is to ensure that when students leave us they are well equipped with a variety of skills that they will need to be successful in life. Our careers provision is delivered as follows.

Careers Leaders

Careers Lead: Mr McLaughlin, Director of Sixth Form
Sixth Form: Mr Lawton, Templeton Head of Higher Education
Trustee Link: Mr Nicholson, Chair of Trustees

They can be contacted via office@wilsonsschool.sutton.sch.uk or by phone 020 8773 2931. Our next review of the careers information on this page will be in July 2024.

Lessons
Apart from making links to the workplace when appropriate as part of the taught curriculum (in some departments it is part of their GCSEplus provision) teachers plan their lessons using our teaching and learning excellence criteria. These include a focus on student collaboration, 100% participation, student autonomy, resilience and outstanding behaviour, all of which are important employability skills.

Co-curricular Activity
Lots of activities e.g. debating, CCF etc. all help to provide students with skills that are useful in the work place. There are also lots of one off events and challenges such as the Year 10 Stock Market Competition, Bebras Computing Challenge and the Be The Future Challenge that students are encouraged to take part in. In Year 12 students participate in the Sport Creativity & Service Award including the Outreach Project and Jacobean programme. The website, announcements pages, weekly newsletter and weekly Head of Year emails to parents continue to advertise and promote other opportunities.

Enrichment
Two of the units delivered in lessons focus on developing public speaking and ICT skills. This is about the personal development of our students and preparing them with the skills to succeed in the workplace.

The Elizabethan
This aims to improve the ‘cultural capital’ and public speaking skills of Year 9 as a distinctive element of our GCSEplus programme. This is about the personal development of our students and its impact may only be fully realised years later.

Departments’ Preparation for Higher Education
All departments have programmes that help prepare students for Higher Education. These programmes often involve visits to universities and the completion of above and beyond work, including all students taking part in a department-led University Preparation Programme.This year there is a focus on scholarship. This will improve the link between departments and students when it comes to completing the Templeton Scholarship Project. As part of the project each student takes part in a viva in which they present their research to a teacher, before being asked questions about their findings.

PSHE
Sessions are delivered by form tutors and PSHE teachers and make links to the workplace and help prepare students for the options process & adult life. The work related learning and careers specific focus in the PSHE curriculum is as follows:

Year 8: Careers and future aspirations
Year 9: Money and the economy
Year 11: Work experience and preparation for adult life
Year 12: Transition to A-Level working (e.g. study habits)
Year 13: Life skills and preparation for adult life

Assemblies
Every year there are always links to careers events and the world outside of Wilson’s in year and whole school assemblies. This helps the students to make informed options decisions. In Year 12 and 13 Mr Lawton leads briefings on above-and-beyond work and the Next Steps Programme (including UCAS, Oxbridge, Apprenticeships and post-school options).

Options Meeting
Parents and students are invited to an evening event in Year 8 and Year 11 to help them understand the options process. The decision making is assisted by the options booklet which is issued at the start of the process. These events also provide an opportunity alongside parent’s evenings to talk to staff.

Open Evening
The school runs a 6th form open evening. Students and parents meet school leaders, 6th form students and teachers of all A Level subjects. Students are also encouraged to visit other schools so that they are aware of a full range of options. An information evening is also run for Year 8 parents.

Speed Careers
An event for students in Year 8 and 11 where they get to talk to current GCSE and A Level students about the subjects they are considering opting for.

SLT Interviews
Students in Years 8 and 11 have an interview with a senior member of staff about their options choices. This is another opportunity for impartial advice and guidance. Students are expected to be able to explain their choices.

Careers Interviews
Compulsory for every student in Year 11. They run from September to February. Year 12 all have a drop in 15 minute interview from March to May. Anyone in Years 8-13 can contact Mr Englefield or their Head of Year if they would like to arrange a careers interview. Here are the details of the interviews that took place in 2020-21:

Year 13 - Drop in during first week of November
Year 12 - All students
Year 11 - All students
Year 10 - 26 students
Year 9 - 64 students
Year 8 - 88 students
Year 7 - Drop in Q & A

The National Careers Service also provides free, impartial careers information, advice and guidance to students, parents and teachers through a website, web chat service and telephone helpline.

Degree and Occupational Talks
A programme of occupational talks takes place during the Summer term. These are delivered by Rosemary Burton (Prospects).

Medicine - becoming a doctor
Alternatives to University e.g. employment, apprenticeships, entrepreneurialism
Professions allied to Medicine- alternatives to being a doctor
Careers in Science
Engineering
Financial Careers
Law
Journalism
Careers in IT, computing and creative media
Architecture

In the November and December of Year 12, all students must attend at least two degree-information talks, to help them make their post-school decisions in an informed manner. These are led by school staff.

In the spring term Dr Whiting runs an Intro to Medicine session for students in Years 11 and 12 who are interested in careers in Medicine or Dentistry. This leads in to weekly Medical Society sessions.

Work Experience
For students in Year 11 only. Every student undertakes at least one placement lasting for one week. In reality many complete two or three placements lasting a number of weeks. Form tutors help prepare boys by delivering a session during a tutor period. In the 6th Form many students complete additional work experience if it is appropriate to their Higher Education or careers choice.

Contact with Employers
We try to provide regular opportunities for students to hear from employers. This is done by encouraging them to go to careers events like Life Skills. Every year different speakers come into the school and talk to students about the world or work, e.g. National Enterprise Challenge, Apprenticeships Talk, Speak Out Challenge, Inspiring Engineers Scheme and Young Enterprise Scheme.

Information and Parents' Evenings
Information Evenings are used to highlight key careers events due to take place during this academic year. Parents’ Evenings are excellent opportunities for discussions with staff about next steps. There are separate evenings for students wishing to apply to Higher Education, Universities in the US, Oxbridge and for Medicine, and an optional meeting for students interested in applying to study in the US.

Resources
Students have access to a vast range of information to help them make decisions about careers. Information is regularly shared with students (and parents) via the school newsletter, website and notice boards (outside reprographics). There is a dedicated careers room in the Library. All students have the opportunity to have a careers interview and a wide range of visiting speakers are used to introduce students to various professions and career options, e.g. Higher Education Fair in Year 12.

External Impartial Guidance
The school is assisted by Prospects that provide assistance for many of the activities mentioned and also conduct the careers interviews. We also work closely with Sutton Schools Careers Leads Network and our new Careers Hub.

UCAS Preparation
Students in Year 12 have the opportunity to hear from representatives of a number of top universities at the Higher Education Fair. Every student receives one to one feedback on their personal statement from a member of staff during the first week of Year 13. Every Oxbridge applicant receives at least two practice interviews to help to prepare them for a university style interview. This year each student had one interview from an external interviewer with experience in the relevant subject (excluding Medicine applicants). The rest of the year group are given the option to sign up if they want to. Each student then receives a follow up interview later on in the term from a subject specialist member of staff. Medicine applicants receive Multiple-Mini-Interview practice in school. Before the first practice interview each student is sent a ‘Preparing for Interviews’ video to watch.

Alternatives to A Levels and University
We understand that (albeit rarely) for good reasons some students decide not to go to university after their A levels. We aim to support these students as rigorously as those that do and given that they are few in number, we are able to respond to their needs on a case by case basis. The raising of the participation age clearly has implications for students who do not want to pursue full time education after their GCSEs and this is part of the reason why we insist on all Year 11 students having a careers interview - so that we can identify those students for whom the school has to tailor its support individually.
Information evenings are used to provide key careers messages for the year ahead. Higher Education Evening covers post-school options including UCAS, Oxbridge and apprenticeships. Parents can play a pivotal role in the careers education of their sons. In order to help, we have listed a number of websites that parents may find useful here.

Evaluation of the Careers Programme
The school assesses the impact of the careers programme in the following ways:

We use the Compass careers tool to evaluate our programme against the eight benchmarks of best practice (known as the Gatsby Benchmarks).
The school’s careers leader (a member of the senior leadership team) has a half-termly meeting with our Enterprise Adviser from our local Careers Hub to review our provision and consider adaptations.
Following careers interviews, students are sent a questionnaire. The outcomes of this questionnaire are used to review the quality of the impartial guidance the students receive.
School leaders use options patterns (GCSE and A Level) and destinations (Sixth Form and university) to determine the extent to which our advice and guidance enables students to successfully move on to the next stage of their education.

A termly report is submitted to the Chair of Trustees which is reported to the school’s Performance Committee.

Further links