Careers Statement
Our vision is:
To be a learning community that provides excellence in education for the whole person – a place where all can flourish. We believe that: “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” Philippians 4:13
Our curriculum not only prepares pupils for their next steps, but also encourages them to look further forward to what they might want to achieve in their future education and subsequent careers. We encourage all pupils to strive for excellence in their academic studies and endeavour to inspire them to develop the skills and qualities sought after by employers. We want pupils to aim high in their future aspirations, and to start thinking about paths to achieve the very best futures for themselves.
We are eager to develop links with employers, post-16 providers and higher education institutions. Please see our Employers page for further information and contact details.
Careers Leader:
Mrs Claire Thomas - Associate Assistant Principal
Telephone: 01785 334900
Email: c.thomas@cca.staffs.sch.uk
Welcome to Careers at CCA
We hope you find the following information helpful. If there is any information that you require, that can’t be found in this section of the website, please contact the Careers Leader, who will be happy to help.
Curriculum
At CCA we have a balanced and varied curriculum that aims to prepare our pupils for a constantly evolving world. Through a combination of supportive teaching and independent learning, pupils are given the opportunity to develop skills for lifelong learning: self-motivation, creativity and the ability to work as part of a team. We set aspirational targets and monitor pupils’ progress to ensure that they flourish.
Careers education is embedded throughout the curriculum and is enhanced by our PSCHEE, Careers and pastoral programmes. This ensures pupils have the cultural capacity to continue their learning and career planning when they move onto the next phase of their education.
Pupils in key stage 3 receive a discrete careers lesson once a fortnight. In addition, there are 4 drop down days timetabled throughout the year in order to enhance provision of Careers, Enterprise, Work skills / Life Skills and Well-being (both physical and mental). This enables pupils to benefit from outdoor activities, citizenship days, enterprise days and charity work. The support of a growing network of partners at a local, regional, national and international level allows this programme to be offered to all pupils
There is an extensive range of extra-curricular opportunities available for all our pupils throughout the school, be it during the school day, in twilight sessions, evenings, weekends and during holiday periods.
The school’s library includes a Careers Library, where pupils can access information about local FE and HE provision, Apprenticeships and Careers. Pupils also have access to the internet and the Start Programme (A comprehensive online careers package).
The 8 Gatsby benchmarks help schools deliver high quality careers and enterprise education.
- A stable careers programme
- Learning from career and labour market information
- Addressing the needs of each pupil
- Linking curriculum learning to careers
- Encounters with employers and employees
- Experiences of workplaces
- Encounters with further and higher education
- Personal guidance
Labour Market Information (LMI)
Labour market information tell you:
- What jobs and skills employers are looking for
- Which industries have vacancies and where they are located
- What education and training you need for specific jobs
- Which job areas are growing in the future, which are in decline and other statistics
FAQs
Q. Who is the best person to contact in the first instance?
The careers leader is Mrs Claire Thomas. Her email address is c.thomas@cca.staffs.sch.uk. Tel. 01785 334900.
Q. When is the best time to contact the school?
It is best to call at lunch time (12.10pm – 1.30pm) or between 3.30pm and 4.30pm. It is likely that teachers will be teaching at all other times and are unlikely to be able to take your call. Email can often be quicker as teachers will check these at the beginning and end of every day.
Q. Can any employer or business get engaged with the school?
We welcome contributions from a wide range of business types and sizes. Some employers may only engage once a year for an hour or so, while others may take part in whole events over a day or over a number of weeks. It is all vital and it all counts!
Q. Are opportunities limited to your older students?
It is really important to raise aspirations from a young age. We are really keen for our year 5 and year 6 pupils to have employer encounters too. Please get in contact with the Careers Lead if this is something you would like to involved in.
Q. What types of opportunities do the school want employers and businesses to offer?
There are a range of different ways that you can get involved:
- Employer Engagement Talks – These can be done ‘Live’ in school to whole year groups, single classes or small groups. These can also be delivered remotely via Microsoft Teams.
- Workplace Visits – Depending on the size of the organisation, we can bring small groups, classes (around 30 pupils), or whole year groups (around 150 pupils). Just let us know your capacity and we will work round you.
- Enterprise Events – during the year we run a number of enterprise activities for students and would love employers to get involved in these.
- Careers Focus Days – Each year group has at least one ‘Drop-Down Day’ focussed on careers education.
- Assemblies – We have weekly assemblies for each year group which take place either before or after lunch.
- Careers Expos/Industry Events – We are hoping to start running these over the next year but we need a wide range of businesses to agree to attend. Please contact the Careers Lead if you would like to contribute to such an event.
Please note: as we are a middle school, our pupils are not old enough to participate in work experience.
Q. Will I get feedback from the school?
We are always keen to improve our practice. As a result, we usually ask employers, pupils and staff to provide feedback after each event or encounter.
Careers Leader
Mrs Claire Thomas - Associate Assistant Principal
Telephone: 01785 334900
Email: c.thomas@cca.staffs.sch.uk
Welcome to Careers at CCA
We hope you find the following information helpful. If there is any information that you require, that can’t be found in this section of the website, please contact the Careers Leader, who will be happy to help.
The Curriculum
At CCA we have a balanced and varied curriculum that aims to prepare our pupils for a constantly evolving world. Through a combination of supportive teaching and independent learning, pupils are given the opportunity to develop skills for lifelong learning: self-motivation, creativity and the ability to work as part of a team. We set aspirational targets and monitor pupils’ progress to ensure that they flourish.
Careers education is embedded throughout the curriculum and is enhanced by our PSCHEE, Careers and pastoral programmes. This ensures pupils have the cultural capacity to continue their learning and career planning when they move onto the next phase of their education.
Pupils in key stage 3 receive a discrete careers lesson once a fortnight. In addition, there are 4 drop down days timetabled throughout the year in order to enhance provision of Careers, Enterprise, Work skills / Life Skills and Well-being (both physical and mental). This enables pupils to benefit from outdoor activities, citizenship days, enterprise days and charity work. The support of a growing network of partners at a local, regional, national and international level allows this programme to be offered to all pupils
There is an extensive range of extra-curricular opportunities available for all our pupils throughout the school, be it during the school day, in twilight sessions, evenings, weekends and during holiday periods.
The school’s library includes a Careers Library, where pupils can access information about local FE and HE provision, Apprenticeships and Careers. Pupils also have access to the internet and the Start Programme (A comprehensive online careers package).
The 8 Gatsby benchmarks help schools deliver high quality careers and enterprise education.
- A stable careers programme
- Learning from career and labour market information
- Addressing the needs of each pupil
- Linking curriculum learning to careers
- Encounters with employers and employees
- Experiences of workplaces
- Encounters with further and higher education
- Personal guidance
Labour Market Information (LMI)
Labour market information tell you:
- What jobs and skills employers are looking for
- Which industries have vacancies and where they are located
- What education and training you need for specific jobs
- Which job areas are growing in the future, which are in decline and other statistics
Supporting your Child
If you are looking for resources to support your child, we would highly recommend the following website:
How2Become have supported our school's careers library but donating £300 worth of books. They offer a range of resources including guides to specific careers, revision guides and study guides.
Welcome
At Christ C|hurch Academy we belive it is never too early to be thinking about your future and planning your career. We are not expecting you to know what you want to do in the future, but knowing more about yourself and your strengths, will help you to plan for your career. It is also important that you understand what skills and qualifications employers are looking for and what the world of work is really like.
From Year 5, right the way through to the end of Year 8, you will take part in numerous careers and enterprise activities.
In Year 7, you will start to use the Launch Your Career Platform.
Year 8s are currently using START.
Find out about jobs and careers from people currently doing them. icould has videos, articles and quizzes to help you find out more about the different careers available.
Christ Church Academy (CCA) seeks to maximise the life chances of all of our young people and so it is crucial to prepare young people for life beyond school and college. Even though we are a middle school, we understand the value of teaching our pupils about careers, from Year 5 to Year 8. We do this through embedded opportunities within the curriculum, drop down days, tutor time and assemblies. Pupils also have the opportunity to take part in various enterprise activities throughout both key stages.
Each department has a member of staff designated as the Careers Champion. Their role is to seek out opportunities to embed careers within their curriculum area and liaising with local FE and HE institutions, local employers and training providers.
At present we use the following Careers Platforms:
Year 7 - Launch your Career
Year 8 - START
We also use iCould and Career Pilot.
CCA Careers Leader
Mrs C Thomas
c.thomas@cca.staffs.sch.uk, 01785 334900
Useful contacts:
Newcastle and Stafford Colleges group: www.nscg.ac.uk
South Staffordshire College (campuses in Cannock, Lichfield, Penkridge and Tamworth): www.southstaffs.ac.uk
Stoke-on-Trent College: www.stokecoll.ac.uk
PM training: www.pmtraining.org.uk
Nova training: www.novatraining.co.uk
Reaseheath Land-based college: www.reaseheath.ac.uk