Castle Mead Academy is a new KS3 school, with plans to grow to Year 10 and 11 over the next few years. They have successfully gone through the LLEP Careers Hub’s new 10-step transformation process of their careers programme.
Castle Mead Academy is part of the LLEP’s Careers Hub and have worked with the team to launch their new careers strategy ‘Roots and Wings’. Together with their Enterprise Coordinator, Rosie McArtney-Chrisp, they transformed the school’s careers vision for the benefit of their students.
Their Careers Coordinator, Hemaxi Morar spoke about the process they went through and how it could benefit other schools or colleges. She said:
“Rosie McArtney-Chrisp from the LLEP Careers Hub and our principal, Tom Hague, initially started working together to determine the careers vision for the school.
“Tom and Rosie engaged with key stakeholders and presented the school’s careers vision to local businesses, governors, teachers, scholars and parents to discuss their priorities for careers. It was really important to hear from them all!
“We went through the transformation process and discovered what our strengths and barriers are to delivering a careers programme. We ensured that we embedded the school’s values and ethos into the strategy as well as making sure it was ‘forward thinking’.
“Since then, I’ve worked closely with Rosie to go through the strategic steps required to form a long-term strategy for the school.
“As part of the process, I presented our careers strategy to school staff, and gained approval from governors. I am now establishing a Careers Champion team from different curriculum areas of the school.
“Teachers and governors were also impressed with our vision, with one colleague remarking, ‘The word “careers” can have a connotation of it just being about jobs. We are creating a culture of optimism for the future.’”
The transformation process has supported Castle Mead Academy to embed the foundations of careers firmly with all staff and has also ensured that stragegy has the backing of the Senior Leadership Team and school governors.
Hemaxi concluded:
“All staff now realise the power and impact of embedding a culture of careers into a school/college as they understand that it is about teamwork and not the sole responsibility of one person.
“If you are considering signing up for the transformation process, my advice would be that you need to spend time planning your school’s strategy and ensure your careers programme can evolve. It needs to reflect what is happening in the jobs market, so students are prepared with up to date and local labour market information and can prepare for their next step.
“I know it can be tricky to get the time to commit to this process, but it is well worth it!”
The LLEP Careers Hub are launching our new Benchmark 1 resource library on 25th January 2022. Schools and colleges should speak to their Enterprise Coordinator to book on to this meeting.
Find out more about the LLEP Careers Hub