Well established links with local businesses mean that many students take their first steps in employment with ongoing support from the school.

Ofsted Education inspection report, May 2022

Our aim is to provide a full and comprehensive careers service for our young people, led by Young People's Learning Lead Nickie Dunphy.

We will equip our young people to be able to make decisions that will lead to engaging in vocational learning with the potential for paid employment or further study, during their time at Prior’s Court and beyond.  

Careers and the world of work are embedded within the learning being delivered to young people at every age and, by providing meaningful work experience and placement encounters with employers, both on and off-site, we can provide our young people with an awareness of the world of work. 

By integrating the Gatsby Benchmark into all areas of education, we can create a service benefiting every one of our young people. 

Click here to see our Careers Service Guide for parents 

Click here to see our Careers Service Guide for employers 

Early steps – Lower School 

Careers learning begins in the form of the introduction of ‘people who help us’ and the jobs they do, as part of the curriculum delivered by the Lower School teaching staff. 

As a young person progresses through Lower School, they will be able to attend taster sessions as an introduction to the various vocational skills programmes of learning. By monitoring a young person’s interest, attention paid to and enjoyment of these sessions, we are able to ascertain interest/skill well ahead of their transition to Post-16 (Upper School). This enables us to put the young person at the centre of the decision-making, allowing choice and discussion. 

The Vocational Skills Area of Learning – Post-16 and Young Adult Provision 

We have teams leading a range of programmes of learning, introducing our young people to new activities, stretching from housekeeping to baking, and to grounds maintenance to working in our on-site orchard. 

Once a young person has acquired new skills, he or she will start to work with our team of Learning Facilitators, to develop their skills in both task based and work readiness. They will learn not only how to undertake the physical task, but a broader range of skills such as what their appearance needs to be like for work, how to behave in an emergency such as a fire drill, or how to use PPE. Well designed and planned sessions for each programme of learning are adapted to meet the needs of each young person, to ensure consistency of teaching and learning.  

Learning Facilitators work with our young people in work experience sessions, progressing to a fuller work placement both on and off-site, with the ultimate aim on the pathway (outlined below) being paid employment for as many of our young people as possible.

See our work experience and work placement policy 

Careers Day

We look to give our young people as many opportunities as possible to engage with members of the local community and from the world of work. 

Our first Careers Day was run at the end of June 2022, and in every June we will now seek to hold such an event to enable our young people to meet representatives from as many different professions as possible. 

A short video from the 2022 event can be seen below:

If you or someone you know would be willing and able to help us offer such an experience, please contact Nickie Dunphy, Young People's Learning Lead on 07720 212600 or [email protected].

Environment 

In our Lower School area, our library includes resources focusing on differing careers or areas of work, such as emergency services, land-based, medical, and catering and hospitality. 

Our Post-16 young people have the use of our Upper School library area/common room/careers area. Here they have a more relaxed environment in which to work with their staff and learn more about differing careers, opportunities available to them and the different staff who will be able to support them into the world of work.