Careers Programme

The Careers Team

Our Careers Leader is Mrs Maggie Brunt mbrunt@gms.bucks.sch.uk

Mrs Brunt is a qualified careers’ leader and advisor, registered with the Career Development Institute (CDI) as a Career Development Professional. Registration provides assurance that she is fully qualified, abides by the CDI Code of Ethics and regularly updates her skills and knowledge.

Students and parent/carers can make an appointment to speak to our Careers Lead via email.

Careers education at GMS is managed by Mr Owen Hollyman Head of Sixth Form ohollyman@gms.bucks.sch.uk

Careers Strategy and Vision

Great Marlow School believes that students should have access to careers’ education, advice and guidance. GMS has put in place access to information that helps students choose suitable pathways to careers’ options. The school believes jobs that offer personal, economic and sustainable employment will lead to successfully fulfilled lives.

Our intent is to encourage every student to work towards achieving their full potential by attaining the best qualifications while guiding them towards ambitious career pathways.

Staff, together with career advisors, work to raise student aspirations. There is a “Next Steps’ day in the Sixth Form Centre and a day when an ‘Interview Skills Workshop’ is organised. Sixth Formers are scheduled a time to go on a week’s work experience in July of Year 12.

• In KS4, Year 11 are scheduled with careers’ interviews, which begin in the autumn term and continue into the spring term
• In KS3, Year 9 students are given support when choosing their options for GCSE, culminating in a GCSE Option’s Evening in the spring term

GMS is proud that 100% of our students progress onto further and higher education, training, employment or apprenticeships.

CEIAG Programme

There has never been a time when Careers Education, Information and Guidance (CEIAG) has been as important as it is today. The landscape of education, training and employment opportunities that students need to navigate is more complex and more challenging than that faced by previous generations.

Our mission statement is for all students to achieve their personal best. In careers’ education, this translates to every student making the best choice to progress.

GMS aims to support students in making well-informed decisions by providing access to differentiated, impartial and independent information and guidance about the range of options (including academic, vocational, apprenticeships and jobs) that are most likely to help them to achieve their ambitions. By helping students with decisions at crucial stages, informing them of all their options, and introducing them to the world of work, GMS aims to prepare them for their career future, whichever pathway they choose.

Aims of Careers Education, Information, Advice and Guidance (CEIAG) at Great Marlow School is to:

• raise students’ aspirations and to broaden their horizons
• inspire and to empower students to make informed realistic decisions at key transition points in their learning
• provide good quality independent and impartial careers advice to students, which inspires them and motivates them to fulfil their potential
• provide advice and guidance in the best interest of the student
• provide opportunities to engage and work in partnership with employers, training providers, local colleges and other agencies
• provide opportunities to inspire students through encounters with employees
• develop enterprise and employability skills including skills for self-employment
• support inclusion, challenge stereotyping and promote equality of opportunity
• provide students in KS5 with the knowledge and inspiration to succeed in their chosen career paths.

The GMS Careers Map is found under the heading CEIAG Programme and sets out how GMS provides a careers’ programme throughout Key Stage 3.

The CEIAG programme is monitored and evaluated annually. Reviewing the CEIAG Programme takes account of the school’s Development Plan to ensure the programme continues to support the school’s aims. We aim to fulfil the Gatsby Benchmarks, the framework of eight guidelines that define careers’ provision in school and colleges.

Careers Fair

Great Marlow School has an annual careers fair. The school welcomes employers who wish to share their knowledge, experience and expertise with our students and offer guidance on career development. Please contact our careers’ leader Maggie Brunt on 01628 495832 or mbrunt@gms.bucks.sch.uk if you would like to discuss how we can work together.

Provider Access

The school welcomes visits from employers, training providers and further and higher education organisations.

Providers who wish to request access should contact the Careers Lead Mrs Maggie Brunt on 01628 495832 or mbrunt@gms.bucks.sch.uk

Partnerships

Great Marlow School works closely with local employers and employees, including parents, carers and alumni of the school, as well as further and higher education providers.

GMS is part of the Bucks Careers Hub, a partnership of local schools who support each other with their careers’ programmes.

GMS is also supported by the Bucks Skills Hub, a government funded agency designed to promote links between schools and businesses. The Bucks Skills Hub provides GMS with an enterprise coordinator and two enterprise advisors who are volunteer senior employees of local businesses.