Great Marlow School, white logo

Careers’ Programme

GMS cares about offering careers information that enables students to make informed decisions that enhance their employability prospects.

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.

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, and apprenticeships) 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:

  • to raise students’ aspirations and to broaden their horizons
  • to inspire and to empower students to make informed realistic decisions at key transition points in their learning
  • to provide good quality independent and impartial careers advice to students which inspires them and motivates them to fulfil their potential
  • to provide advice and guidance in the best interest of the student
  • to provide opportunities to engage and work in partnership with employers, training providers, local colleges and other agencies
  • to provide opportunities to inspire students through encounters with employees
  • to develop enterprise and employability skills including skills for self-employment
  • to support inclusion, challenge stereotyping and promote equality of opportunity
    The GMS Careers Map under the heading CEIAG Programme sets out how the GMS Academy provides a careers programme through Key Stage 3
  • to Key Stage 5 to provide students with the knowledge and inspiration to succeed in their chosen career paths.

We aim to fulfil the Gatsby Benchmarks, the framework of eight guide lines that define careers provision in school and colleges. They are as follows:

  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

Year 12 Work Experience

All students in Year 12 have the opportunity to do a work placement after they have completed their mock exams, usually in July.

Why are Year 12 students given a work experience opportunity?

GMS believes in the value of work experience because, firstly, it offers a unique opportunity to experience a workplace environment that could impact on a career choice. Secondly, students can reference the work placement when applying for UCAS, apprenticeships and jobs. Thirdly, some placements may, and frequently do, lead to part-time employment.

How are the work placements organised?

To give students ownership of their placement, they arrange a place of work themselves. They are expected to pay travel costs, which must be factored into their decision. Often a CV and an interview are required; this is good practice and the school encourages employers to do this. To support students through the process there is a section in The Next Steps Guide available on the website, under the Sixth Form –> Sixth Form Publications page.

What happens when a suitable placement has been found?

Once students have secured their placement, the contact name, address, telephone number and email address is given to their tutor. The details are verified by the staff of GMS, so that visits or telephone conversations can take place during work experience week.