Careers Guidance and Advice

The government’s Careers Strategy (December 2017) and the careers guidance and access for education and training providers (2018), sets out the requirements for secondary schools and colleges in relation to careers education and provision in schools. Although these requirements do not apply to non-maintained special schools, at St Mary’s we have committed to following the guidance wherever possible as this will support the development of good practice.

Maintained schools and academies use the Gatsby Benchmarks to guide their careers activity provision. The Gatsby Benchmarks are a framework of 8 aspects which together provide high quality careers provision in schools.

These are:

1. A stable careers programme
2. Learning from career and labour market information
3. Addressing individual needs
4. Linking the curriculum to careers
5. Encounters with employers and employees
6. Experiences of workplaces
7. Encounters with further and higher education where appropriate
8. Personal guidance

Pupils at St Mary’s receive CEIAG (Careers Education Information and Guidance). This meets professional standards of practice which is person centred, impartial and confidential. CEIAG is embedded into pupils’ experience of the whole curriculum. In addition, we have a careers programme for each year group. (see careers programme for more information)

The careers leader at St Mary’s is responsible for making sure that the careers programme meets the expectations set out in the Gatsby Benchmarks. They are also responsible for tracking the destinations of children as they leave St Mary’s and using this information to improve the effectiveness of our career programme. The Careers Leader at St Mary’s is Mr S. Weakley; Head of Education.