Bishop Stopford School's Careers Curriculum meets the impressive Quality in Careers Standard Report Gold quality mark. Assessors comment that, "learners are aspirational and ambitious and are considering their wider contribution to society and the impact they may have through their careers." (Career Mark April 2023)
Students learn about careers in every year group, with activities which stimulate their interests in the world of work, prepare them for the opportunities, responsibilities and experiences of learning and life, inspiring them to reach their full potential in line with Our Intent.
The Careers Curriculum has three aims:
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Self-Development - enabling students to understand themselves, their strengths and the influences on them, acquiring the core competencies and skills necessary to enable them to access a range of opportunities
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Career Exploration - investigation of opportunities in learning and work, understanding the changing world of work and labour market information
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Career Management - developing skills enabling themselves to make and adjust plans and to manage change and transitions.
Details of the curriculum can be found in our curriculum booklets. Details of the Key Stage 5 programme can be found here.
We welcome enquiries from education and training providers who would like to speak to students about approved technical education qualifications and apprenticeships.
Our Careers Education, Information, Advice and Guidance (CEIAG) Policy (which includes our provider access statement) can be found as a download at the bottom of this page.
Delivery
Our Careers Curriculum is delivered by form tutors, heads of year and our careers leader. Individual advice is also on offer to students as they consider careers and future options. We have an extensive range of external contacts who complement our internal team, offering advice for example on apprenticeship applications, Oxbridge and career skills development.
We work in partnership with an independent Advice and Guidance company - The Mallows Company - who provide a designated Careers Lead and Adviser to provide objective and unbiased provision.
Impact
Our careers work is reviewed regularly as part of our quality assurance schedule: provision is compliant with current statutory requirements. We seek the views of employers, parents and students as part of this process.
We also engage with a range of external frameworks and agencies to ensure that our work is robustly evaluated. We are proud to hold the Gold Quality in Careers Award (Careermark), which recognises the sustained quality of our careers programme. We assess the impact of our careers programme using the Gatsby Benchmarks, Career Development Institute (CDI) frameworks, and through partnership working with the Local Careers Hub. Destinations of our students show the continued positive impact of our careers curriculum on students. Our destinations data is monitored locally and nationally: more detail is available below.
Careers Lead and Adviser - Mrs Glynis Castle
Assistant Head - Mr Simon Smith