Careers Learning Curriculum Statement

Careers at Hednesford Valley High School is an integral part of the overall curriculum, both in the discrete lessons all students take part in, but also through the rest of the curriculum and day to day life in the school community that students will experience.

Careers enables students to discover who they are, what they are good at, where they need to develop further and provides much of the skills and knowledge to help them unlock their pathway to the future they desire.

Careers teaches students how to prepare for their lives after school, how to discover all their options available to them and how to get there, including completing applications and attending interviews.

Careers at Hednesford Valley High School aims to develop young people who are ready for the new world ahead of them when they leave school, to be Ready to Learn, Ready for Life!

Implementation

The careers programme at Hednesford Valley High School provides students with many opportunities to access learning relating to the world of further education, training and work. Elements of careers education are delivered in subjects across the curriculum in Key Stage 3, for example TRICK learning, PE, Science, Food Technology specifically teach all the skills that form the universal framework by Skills Builder, a research-based set of key skills needed by employers from their employees.

A new discrete careers curriculum for KS4 has been created for first teaching in September 2024, including personal progression, being organised, career exploration, health and safety at work, key skills for jobs, virtual work experience, personal finance for work, researching the local jobs market and creating a portfolio, where again students will work on the key skills specifically. Some Year 10 and 11 students attend Wolverhampton Vocational Training Centre, where they learn skills such as bricklaying, hair and beauty, decorating, carpentry and car maintenance.

Students in Key Stage 5 Discovery and Apollo groups will have regular work experience with a variety of local employers. This has previously directly led to full-time positions for students upon leaving the school.

All students in Key Stage 5 receive employability and / or work skills lessons.

In addition to this there will also be eight specific timetabled assemblies which will, create opportunities for students to encounter the world of work via external providers, including local employers.

Further there are specific events, such as what now, where next information evening, the careers fayre and independent careers advisor interviews with all year 11 and year 14 students.

Assessment 

The assessment process has been designed to be as accurate and as manageable as possible. Students will be assessed for each focus as either:  

Emerging: The student has been exposed to new skills and knowledge and has had some chance to practice them. The student does not fully understand the new skills and knowledge yet. 

Developing: The student has begun to fully understand some of the skills and knowledge taught and can demonstrate this on at least three separate occasions. 

Secure: The student fully understands the new skills and knowledge and can demonstrate this in at least three different contexts or occasions. 

Students are assessed at the beginning and end of each topic, and the teacher’s overall assessment recorded, using the descriptors above (E/D/S). The form of the assessment is decided by the teacher and could be for example a mind map, discussion, poster, leaflet, series of questions for the teacher written by the student about the elements they don’t already understand. This list is not exhaustive nor restrictive.  

Chris Wall

Associate Assistant Headteacher (Personal Development).