We use the 8 Gatsby Benchmarks as a foundation when planning our Careers programme.
St Edmund Arrowsmith works closely with Liverpool Archdiocese Education department and the Greater Manchester Apprenticeship and Careers Service. These are external organisations that supports us to develop and strengthen our careers education strategy across the whole school.
The effectiveness of our provision is reviewed termly by the Greater Manchester Apprenticeship and Careers Company using the Compass Plus Tool. This tool is used by schools and colleges in England to support the analysis and evaluation of careers activity against the eight benchmarks of best practice. This ensures the development of our Careers strategy is ongoing.
This careers programme is evaluated by key stakeholders every term as part of a wider assessment of Personal Development Curriculum. Termly Quality Assurance checks and online pupil evaluations assess efficacy and areas for improvement of the careers programme and wider Personal Development Curriculum. Students, employers and teachers provide feedback on their participation in activities via questionnaires throughout the year.
We use the evidence collected to inform continuous improvement of the programme. A termly questionnaire is completed by all Form Tutors in Years 7-11, following feedback shared by pupils about activities they have participated in across all areas of the Personal Development Curriculum (including careers).
St Edmund Arrowsmith collects destinations data annually which shows the institutions and level of qualification that all students have progressed to. To an extent, this reflects the effectiveness of the Careers Programme in informing students about the full range of post-16 options available (although destinations are most strongly influenced by students’ academic outcomes).
The impact of our school's careers provision cannot always be fully assessed during a child's time at school. It is about the quality in which we implement the careers programme in the following ways outlined below: -
