Gatsby Benchmark 6 states that by the age of 16, every pupil should have had at least one experience of a workplace, additional to any part-time jobs they may have. By age 18, every pupil should have had one further such experience, additional to any part-time jobs they may have.

Under this benchmark, experiences of the workplace can include work visits, work shadowing and/or work experience.

Every year in July, all of our Year 10 and 12 pupils undertake one week’s work experience. Our work experience programme seeks to assist the school in its joint aims of providing opportunities for all pupils to learn and achieve, and promoting pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development; preparing all pupils for the opportunities, responsibilities and experience of life. This is achieved by providing all pupils with the opportunity to learn about work, learn through work and learn for work.

Pupils organise their own work experience placements, with the help of the Careers Leader if necessary. We use Unifrog and their Placements Tool to log our student’s placements.

Whilst on work experience our students;

• Meet a range of people from the workplace
• Engage in extensive two way interactions between students and employees
• Perform a task or produce a piece of work relevant to their workplace and receive feedback on it from the employer.

Why work experience?

Work experience is most likely the first contact our students will have with the world of work. It is important preparation for any career and can make an application stand out from the crowd for applications for universities, apprenticeships, courses and jobs. Please click here  for advice on how work experience can help you.

Here is an extract from our work experience assembly and PSHE of why our students go on work experience;

Work Experience Preparation

Pupils will prepare for work experience through Careers-themed lessons, often delivered through PSHE lessons to help prepare them for the world of work. This will include health and safety at work, laws surrounding work, informing the students of their expectations whilst on a placement, what to wear and what to do if they are sick etc.

Before the students go on their placements they will have a refresher session on expectations and in this session they will identify their own personal learning outcomes based on the age and needs of the student.

Reflection

All students complete a Work Experience journal whilst they are on their placements. They will also have a structured reflection session to reinforce what they have learned whilst on their placement and if they have achieved their learning outcomes.

We encourage students to participate in as many experiences of workplaces as possible, this can include work shadowing, work visits, virtual work experience, taster days and summer work experience placements.

We provide details of work experience opportunities to students via our Careers MS Teams groups and to students, parents and carers via our Careers Bulletins.

 

Please see below our Work Experience Parent letters/Guides and our policy for students in Years 10 and 12.

Year 10 Work Experience - 10th -14th July 2023

Year 12 Work Experience - 3rd - 7th July 2023