Character Curriculum – Careers
St Thomas More is committed to developing the life chances of all students, and aims to encourage and inspire them through a comprehensive programme of CEIAG (careers education, information, advice and guidance).
Students participate in a range of activities which include learning about themselves: their personality, strengths and qualities.
Through Personal Development lessons pupils will begin to explore different career options in the modern world and gain an awareness of how they begin to research and plan various career paths.
Careers education is linked to every subject department and are an intrinsic part of the work we do to inspire and motivate students to achieve their very best. In addition to encouraging students to think about and plan their future pathways, CEIAG provides an invaluable opportunity for us to motivate and inspire our young people to really fulfil their potential, it is for this reason that CEIAG is embedded within every key stage, across every subject. As a learning community, we are fully committed to providing the students in our care with the very best educational opportunities, helping guide them to make the best choices with regards to their personal, social and educational development.
All year groups will meet with employers and other outside agencies to gain independent and impartial advice about the options which are best suited to them as individuals. As part of Careers Advice, Guidance and Development, pupils receive high quality impartial careers guidance, which help them to make informed choices about which courses suit their academic needs and aspirations.
Our Careers Leader is Mrs Bennett.
Our Careers Link Governor is the ISIC Board.
If you have any queries about careers, higher education or work experience please contact on 01298 23167 or enquiries@stm.srscmat.co.uk
Our Careers Programme
Working in partnership with D2N2 and Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP), we have created the following careers plan for Yrs7-11 at St Thomas More.
We have also crafted a curriculum with guidance and information provided by the following documents:
DfE Careers guidance and access for education and training providers
The Gatsby Good Careers Guidance Handbook
Baker Clause Policy
As part of St Thomas More’s commitment to informing our pupils of the full range of learning and training routes on offer to them, we are happy to consider requests from training, vocational education and apprenticeship providers to speak to students and will also approach these partners ourselves when planning organising key Careers events throughout the school year.
In January 2023, the updated provider access legislation (PAL) comes into effect. It specifies schools must provide at least six encounters with approved providers of apprenticeships and technical education for all their students:
· Two encounters for pupils during the ‘first key phase’ (year 8 or 9) that are mandatory for all pupils to attend
· Two encounters for pupils during the ‘second key phase’ (year 10 or 11) that are mandatory for all pupils to attend
To read more about our Provider Access Legislation (PAL), please press here:
Provider Access Legislation Policy (PAL)
How we measure and assess the impact of the careers programme
St Thomas More (STM) works closely with the D2N2 and Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) Careers Hub. This is an external organisation that supports us to develop and strengthen our careers education strategy across the whole school. At STM we use the 8 Gatsby Benchmarks and the Careers Development Institute Framework as a foundation when planning our Careers programme. The effectiveness of our provision is reviewed by the LEP and the Careers and Enterprise Company using the Compass Plus Tool. This tool is used by schools and colleges in England to support the analysis and evaluation of careers activity against the eight benchmarks of best practice.
This ensures the development of our career’s strategy is ongoing. STM is a member of the LEP Careers Hub. We will benchmark our schools against the Gatsby Benchmarks once a term.
In line with the recommendations set out in Gatsby Benchmark 1, we as a school plan to review the published information on an annual basis, inviting feedback from key audiences in our stakeholder evaluation group. TGLS will also be holding an annual Future Skills Questionnaire with the pupils during their transition years so that the programme has a youth voice.
Why we evaluate
This careers programme is evaluated every year to assess its efficacy and areas for improvement. Key stakeholders (pupils, parents, teachers and employers) provide feedback on their participation in activities via questionnaires, surveys and focus groups throughout the year. We use the evidence collected to inform continuous improvement of the programme.
How we evaluate
STM have an evaluation stakeholder group, whose purpose it is to provide a well balance view on the quality of the careers offer to pupils. The group is chaired by the school’s Headteacher
and the SLT, along with the Careers Leader. They meet once a year to review the evidence collected during the school year and consider their subjective experience and engagement with the programme. The Careers Leader creates an evidence pack for members of the group in advance of the annual evaluation meeting.
The school Careers Leader combines their own knowledge, evidence and information with that from the stakeholder group and provides a short report with recommendations to SLT towards the end of the summer term.
What we evaluate
Stakeholder Feedback – We review samples of stakeholder feedback collected using various methods after activities, events and experiences. Implementation – We review what was delivered against the programme of planned activity and how well it went. Impact – We measure key performance indicators linked directly to our vision and desired outcomes for our pupils.
Further information and support with Careers at St Thomas More
