CAREERS
Selly Park Girls’ School is proud to offer a comprehensive careers programme which is mapped to the Gatsby benchmarks and is one of the few schools in the country which has met all of the 8 Gatsby benchmarks above all national averages. As a result of a comprehensive careers programme provided by the school, 97% of students in 2022 stayed in education or entered employed, above the national average of 94% and Birmingham average of 93%.
Careers education, information, advice and guidance (CEIAG) is an essential part of the support we offer to our students at Selly Park Girls’ School.
Effective careers support will help you to prepare for opportunities, responsibilities and experiences of life to manage transitions as learners and workers.
As options for young people become more varied and complex, it is vital that we support you to develop the knowledge and skills you need to make informed choices for their future.
Careers Day – 8th February 2024
The school has an annual dedicated drop down day for careers education on 8th February 2024 this year and warmly encourage colleges, training providers and employers to speak to students in years 7 -11 to discuss apprenticeships and technical educational routes. Please contact enquiry@sellyparkgirls.org for more information and next steps.
Using the Unifrog Platform
Selly Park Girls’ School is using the Unifrog platform to help students find their future starting from choosing their GCSE subjects all the way through to post 18 progression pathways including university, apprenticeships or employment. Unifrog brings all the available information into one single, impartial, user friendly platform that helps students to make the best choices. We encourage students to click on the link below and log into their profile and continue to use the platform, use link below:
For more help on how to use the Unifrog platform please see the links below:
KS3 Help KS3 Student Launch (loom.com)
KS4 Help KS4 Student Launch (loom.com)
Students are encouraged to share the link below with parents so they can support you during your career journey, please use the link below:
Unifrog Information for Parents Parents - an introduction to Unifrog (loom.com)
Student Entitlement
All students are entitled to be fully involved in an effective CEIAG programme with student entitlement by each year group as below:
YEAR 11
Ensure Selly Park students are ready to take their next step in their learning or career as they enter KS5 by supporting positive transitions post-16 personalised as per Year 11 action plans.
YEAR 10
Encourage KS4 students to be ambitious, broaden their horizons including considering further and higher education and technical education qualifications including apprenticeships and preparing for work experience in Year 10
YEAR 9
Prepare students for their future focusing on option choices and how to manage KS3-KS4 transition by making informed GCSE choices in Year 9
YEAR 8
Introduction to careers enabling students to research careers to find out about opportunities available to them
YEAR 7
Research skills, jobs and the world of work with a focus on relating what they learn in lessons to their life and career beyond school
Selly Park Girls and the Gatsby Benchmarks
Selly Park Girls’ School is proud to offer a comprehensive careers programme which is mapped to the Gatsby benchmarks and is one of the few schools in the country which has met all of the 8 Gatsby benchmarks above all national averages.
A breakdown of how the school’s career programme is meeting the Gatsby benchmarks is shown below:
A stable Careers programme
At Selly Park, we have a stable careers programme which is embedded into the school culture.as careers education, information, advice and guidance forms an integral part of student life at Selly Park Girls’ School. Students in all year groups are timetabled 30-minute careers focused sessions each half-term (15 hours of careers provision) which are age-appropriate which take students through the stages of career planning from age 11 right through to planning post-16 options linked to the Gatsby benchmarks via the Unifrog platform.
The annual careers day is a drop down day for all year groups (25 hours of careers provision) indeed we had over 35 providers in school on our last careers day on 5th January 2023 with students in year 7 to year 11 benefiting from encounters with employers, technical education providers, further education and higher education providers during the day. In addition, KS4 students benefit from additional careers support with impartial careers advice (190 hours of impartial careers advice provided to Year 11 students and Year 10 from YETI as well as Year 10 work experience for one week (25 hours of careers provision). Thus, in total the school provides over 250 hours of dedicated careers provision to students The positive comments in the Ofsted report plus our awarding of the Prospects Quality in Careers Award is further validation of excellent careers practice within the school.
Learning from Career and Labour market information
At Selly Park, we focus on learning from career and labour market with careers activities focus on local and national labour market information and trends and areas of shortages are shared with students with the school website having local links as well as national labour market information provided by LMI for all. For example, students have been learning that the Greater Birmingham and Solihull Local Enterprise Partnership has identified five key growth areas within the region: Life Sciences, Creative Industries, Energy Technologies, Advanced Manufacturing and Engineering and Business, Professional and Financial Services.
Addressing the needs of each pupil
Careers advice and provision is differentiated to help support the needs of individual pupils with a SEND-First strategy in place to support the needs of SEND learners. Disadvantaged and vulnerable pupils have an enhanced careers offer provided to them to widen their awareness so they are better prepared for the world of work and future careers. The school’s spiral careers curriculum is age-appropriate which take students through the stages of career planning from age 11 right through to planning post-16 options linked to the Gatsby benchmarks via the Unifrog platform.
Linking curriculum learning to careers
Links between the curriculum and careers at Selly Park are strong as they are fully embedded into our school culture. Teachers continue to enhance these links and have used the Birmingham Careers Hub’s My Learning My Future resources to teach students about careers and pathways in 27 different subjects and 12 LMI growth areas in the West Midlands during lessons. In addition, all departments map all careers learning linked to the curriculum in lessons using the Birmingham Grid with 76 examples this year.
Encounters with employers and employees
Encounters with employers and employees is central to the careers programme. Our annual careers day, careers fairs as well as assemblies and trips allow students to encounter employers and employees. In recent years we have had encounters with technical education providers such as Make UK and Amazing Apprenticeships and employers such as Shakespeare Martineau, Channel 4, NHS and the Royal Navy amongst others.
Experience of workplaces
All Year 10 pupils have the opportunity to attend one-week work-based learning placement in the summer term. In addition, Year 10 and Year 11 pupils are given an opportunity to attend College and Training work places for ‘taster’ sessions of post 16 options. Pupils will be accompanied to a Sixth Form College for a taster session to help them make informed post 16 choices.
Encounters with further and higher Education
The school has long-standing relationships with further and higher education providers with excellent links with all local universities, colleges and sixth-forms. The school was nominated by IntoUniversity for its work to promote higher education in 2021 and this year alone had CV workshops kindly offered by Solihull College to full taster days at Joseph Chamberlain College and more. We also have had encounters with higher education providers including a talk about degrees and degree apprenticeships from Aston university and an inspirational talk from a Selly Park Star and former alumni Zuhaira who inspired studies about her studies at Oxford university.
Personal guidance
All KS4 pupils have at least two individual careers interviews with an external and impartial careers adviser from YETI. Pupils are given individual action plans to help with their post 16 options and choices with SEND students given priority and additional careers advice and support as necessary. The school provides 190 hours of impartial careers advice provided to KS4 students.
Quality in Careers Award
The awarding of the Prospects Quality in Careers Award is further evidence of good careers practice within the school.
Careers Policies
For more information regarding careers please see our careers policies via the links below:
Employer Information
Any employer interested in working with the school especially those offering technical education opportunities a la the Baker Clause are strongly encouraged to work with the school with full details in the separate Provider Access Policy and can contact Mr Arif on 0121 472 1238 or via email at enquiry@sellyparkgirls.org
Finding out more
Further sources of useful information include:
Any student needing any careers support are strongly encouraged to contact Mr Arif who will ensure that you are offered additional advice and support from our careers advisor Mr Franks.
Selly Park Alumni
We have launched an alumni at Selly Park which brings together former students to share memories and inspire current students with an aim to build everlasting ties with our students.