Careers Programme Information
Assessment And Monitoring Of Our Careers Programme
At The Valley School, we believe that every student has the potential to fully achieve their career goals.
We work alongside YC Hertfordshire to deliver a fun, educational and aspirational careers programme, led by Miss Heller.
YC Hertfordshire work with our students from Year 9 through to the end of Year 11, starting with 1:2:1 meetings with our Personal Guidance Advisor Bridie McDonald, regarding careers guidance and further education.
Miss Heller and the Year 11 team keep track of each student’s progress before they leave The Valley and work with YC Hertfordshire, various Transition Support Workers and the student’s families to ensure the best options are available for each individual.
We analyse our provision via the Gatsby Benchmarks of which there are 8 benchmarks that the school needs to meet, to ensure each student gets the best careers guidance throughout school.
Our most recent Compass evaluation in September 2021 showed that we are achieving higher than the national average in 5 out of the 8 Gatsby Benchmarks, however this has suffered due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Careers Policies And Strategies
The Careers Leader, Miss Heller meets with the Careers and Enterprise Special Schools Co- Ordinator, Jacquie Gascoigne once a term to discuss progress with our careers strategy.
Careers Provision For Key Stage 3 Students
Concepts of employment and careers are explored during our learning 4 life lessons in years 7, 8 and 9, where we introduce a range of elementary concepts relating to the world of work and careers.
Aspects of the world of work are also explored in relation to the thematic curriculum that our students follow, for example when studying the Farm to Fork theme in Year 7 students will look at the various jobs relating to farming and what these would involve.
Both Year 8 and 9 invited members of the emergency services into school to speak about their jobs and how their roles fitted into the community, what they did on a daily basis and what qualifications are required to do their jobs.
YC Hertfordshire delivers our career guidance to our students, of which more information can be found on their website: https://www.ychertfordshire.org/
In Year 9, our Personal Guidance Advisor Bridie McDonald, meets with our students for a 1:2:1 meeting to start their careers guidance journey. Bridie has contact with each student’s family from Year 9 to discuss future options for our students.
Careers Provision For Key Stage 4 Students
In Years 10 and 11 students follow a vocational based curriculum where they follow a Btec level 1 course titled `Introduction to vocational studies’ over the 2 years they will choose units which explore an range of work based learning including health and social care, plumbing and childcare. Part of the course is based offsite in a children’s nursery. They will all also complete a unit on personal skills.
In Year 10 our students are introduced to the world of Enterprise, where they simulate many of the conditions experienced in a working environment. They will develop a range of employment skills from planning, personal responsibility, designing, researching resourcing making as well as budgeting and selling.
This is a wonderful practical introduction to the world of work and allows the introduction of a range of skills, expectations and experiences which would be beneficial to our students when they move into the world of work.
In the past students have joined students from other schools to complete vocational courses at the Stevenage Skills Centre in construction, motor vehicle as well as Hair and beauty. Unfortunately NHC are not running these courses at present and we are currently looking for an appropriate replacement.
During Year 11 all students will experience a link programme at North Herts College where they will have tasters of a range of the courses that can be followed Post 16. This prepares students very well for the next step in their journey and alieves many of the anxieties around their transition to college.
During Key stage 4 other career linked work will be covered cross curricular letter writing and CV’s will be covered in English, healthy lifestyle and positive leisure time will be covered in PE and function numeracy will be covered in Maths.
We work very closely with the Transition Support Workers from each college who get to know our students before they leave us, as well as being someone they can turn to for advice and assistance when they start their college course.
YC Hertfordshire delivers our career guidance to our students, of which more information can be found on their website: https://www.ychertfordshire.org/
We work closely with North Hertfordshire College, Herts Regional and Oaklands College to provide a smooth journey into further education. Our Personal Guidance Advisor Bridie McDonald meets with our students for a 1:2:1 meetings to discuss their career guidance journey. Bridie has contact with each student’s family from Year 9 to discuss future options for our students.
Contact
If you wish to contact Miss Heller regarding careers, please feel free to email chaleen.heller@thevalley.herts.sch.uk or call 01438 747274
Destinations Of Our Students
All of our students transition to Further Education College after year 11. Primarily they transition onto North Herts College and the many different courses that they run to match the needs and progressions routes of our students. These are based in both Stevenage and Hitchin.
Due to geographical consideration some of our other students transitioned onto Oakland’s college, both in Welwyn and in St Albans or to Herts Regional College.
To see what opportunities are available in Hertfordshire, please visit the fantastic Hertfordshire Opportunities Portal (attack link) https://www.hopinto.co.uk/ where you can find jobs, apprenticeships and labour market information.
Government Strategy And The Eight Gatsby Benchmarks
All advice and support is aligned to The Government’s Career Strategy, which was developed in December 2017, and is underpinned by the Gatsby Benchmarks, which are a framework of eight guidelines for good career guidance, developed to support schools in providing students with the best possible careers education, information, advice and guidance (CEIAG).
The eight Gatsby Benchmarks are:
1. A stable careers programme.
2. Learning from career and labour market information.
3. Addressing the needs of each student.
4. Linking curriculum learning to careers.
5. Encounters with employers and employees.
6. Experiences of workplaces.
7. Encounters with further and higher education.
8. Personal guidance.
We have a good relationship with the Careers and Enterprise Company and work with Jacquie Gascoigne, Special Schools Coordinator
More information about the Careers and Enterprise Company can be found on their website
The Valley School is now part of the Careers and Enterprise Company ‘Hub’, which is formed of many secondary and special schools across Hertfordshire. This allows the school to form great relationships with employers and education providers who can work with our students.
