Careers Strategy at Amersham School

Good careers guidance connects learning to the future. It motivates young people by giving them a clearer idea of the routes to jobs and careers that they will find engaging and rewarding. Good careers guidance widens pupils’ horizons, challenges stereotypes and raises aspirations. It provides pupils with the knowledge and skills necessary to make successful transitions to the next stage of their life. This supports social mobility by improving opportunities for all young people, especially those from disadvantaged backgrounds and those with special educational needs and disabilities.

(Careers guidance and access for education and training providers. Statutory guidance for governing bodies, school leaders and school staff. DfE October 2018)

In line with this guidance, we use the Gatsby Charitable Foundation’s Benchmarks to develop and improve our careers provision aiming to complete each benchmark by the end of 2020. We track our progress to achieve the benchmarks using the online Compass tool provided by the Careers & Enterprise Company. The Company supports and coordinates collaboration between employers, schools, colleges, Local Enterprise Partnerships and careers and enterprise organisations to create high impact careers and enterprise support to our young people (aged 11-18). The Company’s initial focus has been on employer engagement, based on evidence about the importance of giving young people more opportunities to connect with employers of all sizes, and from all sectors. These encounters will inspire pupils and allow them to learn about what work is like, or what it takes to be successful in the workforce. The Careers & Enterprise Company will also offer further support across all of the Gatsby Benchmarks. This includes the development of new resources, support for our Careers Leaders and for our local Bucks Careers Hub, of which we are enthusiastic members. They also support us with an Enterprise Coordinator and Advisor (a senior business volunteers who work closely with a local school to help develop a practical careers plan.) 

We understand our duties to secure independent careers guidance. We contract Adviza, formerly Connexions, to undertake interviews with all students before the end of Year 11 and again before leaving Year 13. All one-to-one interviews include producing personalised action plans. Adviza attend options evenings & exam results days to provide support for students & parents.

There is extensive CEIAG (Careers Education, Information, Advice & Guidance) support in a well-stocked LRC (including, for example, e-clips database.) All students have individual log-ins for Unifrog, “The complete destinations platform. We help students compare every opportunity, then apply successfully. We also empower teachers and counsellors to manage the progression process effectively.” (unifrog.org) & there is evidence that this is increasingly used & widely seen as useful & helpful across all year groups.

The school has a well-developed system of information and advice on progression through transition phases & options for the future. Form tutors hold regular mentoring sessions with individuals in their class (usually during morning assembly time). APCs (Academic Progress Checks), currently 4x pa, are a further opportunity to review data about progress and to review and set targets for improvement. Options Evening events brief students and parents & may be supplemented with Springboard events for exam cohorts. There are also the regular parent consultation evenings for individual meetings with subject teachers.

We provide opportunities to a range of providers to inform pupils about technical education qualifications or apprenticeships and to publish information about the careers programme on our school website.

We intend that our careers guidance programme will also be reflected in higher numbers of pupils progressing to positive destinations such as apprenticeships, technical routes, school sixth forms, sixth form colleges, further education colleges, universities or employment.

Please see Amersham School Careers Programme for detail on curriculum - and extra curricular - delivery.