Careers

At Marshfields School we believe that all students have a role to play in the workforce of the future. We work tirelessly to ensure that they develop the skills and resilience needed for a successful career, working carefully within the context of their additional needs. Mrs Thomson co-ordinates our careers programme. She can be contacted via cherylthomson@marshfields-sch.co.uk

Planned transition is an important part of our work at Marshfields. We carefully consider all possible options with each individual and their strengths and future aspirations in mind. Some students remain with us in our Post 16 provision. Others have opted for an apprenticeship, or the world of work, whilst a proportion of our students have transitioned successfully into mainstream colleges. We work hard to ensure that the next move is at the right level and enables the students to build on the success they have experienced with us.

We consider transition from the moment students join, however young they may be, so we can build students’ confidence and social skills through working on areas of need identified in the Skills Framework such as motivation, respect, resilience, organisation and teamwork. We do this by offering a programme of extended work experience, supported as necessary. We monitor the impact of this on an individual basis and can evidence how our students go from requiring high levels of support to attending independently.

All annual review meetings explore the voice of the child in their career plans and encourage parents to become aware of the options available to their child. This information is fed back to the local authority on annual review documentation. Year 9 reviews, for example, ensure that the options choices are meaningful for the students in that cohort.

On a practical level we work closely with local providers, employers, schools and colleges to ensure we understand students’ interests to find the right work experience placement, college course and environment for success. We liaise with professionals, parents and, most importantly, our students to determine the next step.

Year 11 students access work experience for two weeks. Some students will access a longer period of work experience which is designed to ensure they have the relevant experience to apply for a mainstream college course.

Within our timetabled provision, we ensure there is dedicated cross- curricula careers time, for example in PHSE some students gain ASDAN certificates in employability skills, whilst in many other subjects enterprise activities are undertaken.

Most of our students have experienced much change in their young lives and struggle to cope with any change as a result. To try to proactively address this we try to source every available opportunity to prepare them for the next phase of their lives. We support students by providing courses and experiences with colleges/alternative placements/employers work experience, multiple taster days and supported visits during which we share all the relevant information on every student’s strengths and weaknesses with our professional colleagues. We try to involve our parents in this as much as possible, so they can support the management of impending significant change.

Additional information on Careers can be found by clicking the button below.

The school’s Gatsby Benchmark Score can be found by clicking the button below.

The school’s Careers and Provider Access Policy can be found by clicking the button below.