Careers

Careers Information, Advice and Guidance

Our vision for Careers supports our whole school ethos (Psalm 16) of providing our students with ‘a goodly heritage’ that equips them with the skills and knowledge to make informed decisions about their future pathways.

The Lady Margaret School Careers Programme for 2023-24

There are updates about opportunities and events in Careers Corner, a standing item in ‘Mentions’, our weekly school newsletter, which is sent out to all students and their parents/ carers. The Sixth Form Google Classroom also publicises exciting resources, summer schools and other programmes. We make extensive use of Unifrog, a digital destinations platform that brings together opportunities from universities and employers and supports students’ decision-making about pathways and their post-18 applications to university.

The Careers Lead, Miss Walton, works closely with the Heads of Year to ensure that all students at Lady Margaret School have access to independent advice and guidance appropriate for them.

A Careers Adviser, employed by the school, from the Educational Development Trust, provide careers education information and guidance. This takes place in a number of ways – one-to-one careers guidance, small group discussion groups, whole tutor group and whole year group talks as well as talks to parents/ carers. Careers guidance and education is integrated into our PSHE programme and assemblies.

Opportunities for learning about careers and for developing skills for careers are integrated into departmental schemes of work, monitored by Heads of Department, and are also provided through our super-curricular and extra-curricular offer.

Careers provision is reviewed regularly by the Senior Leadership Team and Heads of Year.  Our link governor for Careers, Paul Sloan, has regular contact with the Careers Lead in order to scrutinise our careers provision and to report back to the Governing Body. Student voice is used to evaluate impact, as well as students’ destinations. 

We meet the Statutory Frameworks for careers guidance in schools. This includes the eight The Gatsby Benchmarks:

  1. A stable careers programme
  2. Learning from career and labour market information
  3. Addressing the needs of each pupil
  4. Linking curriculum learning to careers
  5. Encounters with employers and employees
  6. Experiences of workplaces
  7. Encounters with further and higher education
  8. Personal guidance

The Baker Clause from January 2018 which was introduced as an amendment to the Technical and Further Education Act 2017, which requires schools to provide access to colleges and other training providers in order to ensure that students have information about vocational pathways.

Y11-13 careers day, September 2023

Our students are provided with access to providers at careers events such as the Key Stage 3 careers fair, the Y11-13 careers day, Skills London and the national UCAS Higher Education exhibition. Outside provider talks include those offered by the police and the National Citizens Service, as well as apprenticeship providers and art/ fashion foundation providers. We work with several outside organisations and providers, including West London College, ASK Apprenticeships and Amazing Apprenticeships as well as career-specific programmes such as Medlink, Vetlink, MedicMentor, NHS Allied Healthcare, the Social Mobility Foundation Aspiring Professionals Programme and the Access to the Professions Pathways schemes run by the Sutton Trust.

We partner with Speakers for Schools, and have in recent years hosted Jeremy Vine, presenter on BBC Radio 2, Liz
Evans, former CEO of Warehouse, Spencer Dale, Group Chief Economist at BP and Former Private Secretary at the Bank of England and Rick Haythornthwaite, former Chairman of the Southbank Centre and former Chairman of Mastercard.

Our sixth formers participate in a range of programmes linked to higher education establishments, including the Arts and Humanities programme at Pembroke College, Oxford, the Eton Summer School, the Harrow School Lumina Course, Imperial College Stem Programme, K+ widening participation programme run by King’s College London, the LSE Pathways Programme, Medicine Outreach course at King’s College London, the SOAS History & Law Summer Schools and UCL & CH2 STEM Programme.

Learning Outcomes

The CDI’s Career Development Framework describes the six career development skills that students should cover in order to have positive careers. These support Gatsby Benchmark 1 by providing a stable careers programme with clear learning outcomes. These are met through our spiral curriculum in PSHE, through our curriculum subjects, our super-curricular offer and our wider careers programme.

Supporting Our Careers Programme

If you are an alumna or parent/ carer or have a family member or friend who would be willing to speak to students about your career pathway and current role, or you are am employer, education or training provider and would like to support Lady Margaret School with our Careers programme (including Year 12 work experience placements, lunchtime careers talks, networking opportunities and attending Key Stage 3 careers fair in the summer term 2024 or speaking at our Y11-13 careers day in September 2024), please do contact us.

For our Careers Guidance Provider Access Policy, please click here.

Useful resources

For research into career pathways, the following websites are useful:

Careerometer

Careerometer can be used to explore and compare key information about occupations, help you learn about different occupations and identify potential careers.
It provides access to a selection of UK headline data relating to pay, weekly hours of work and future employment prospects for different occupations, as well as description of the occupation.

Simply type in the title of the job you are interested in and the widget provides a series of options from which you can select the most relevant to you. You can then look up another two occupations and compare. You can also select ‘display the UK average’ and compare the information with the occupation you have selected.

Skillsometer

Skillsometer can help you discover what jobs you might like to do in the future. You will be presented with a series of statements. Select the emoji that shows how you feel about each statement. You will be given suggestions of jobs linked to what you most enjoy doing.