Careers Education

At Icknield, we provide a wealth of experiences across the five years students spend with us to prepare them for their next life stages, into further education and employment. We work with various outside agencies to provide this.

Our careers education, information, advice and guidance (CEIAG) is reviewed regularly by the Careers Coordinator and relevant Leadership Team member, drawing upon input from the Head of Citizenship, all teaching staff and a range of students.

The Careers Coordinator completes the Careers and Enterprise Compass tool on a termly basis to monitor performance against the Gatsby Benchmarks. This information is shared with OxLEP for its reporting to government departments. A survey is completed by all students who receive one-to-one careers advice (currently all Year 11 students and high priority students in Year 10) to monitor the access to, and quality of, CEIAG.

The Careers Coordinator receives feedback from students and key partners to help review and evaluate events such as mock interviews, CareersFest and work experience, to ensure they are targeted correctly and achieve maximum impact for both students and partners. Students on work experience are asked to reflect on the skills acquired and how the experience has helped their career planning.

Further evaluation of the careers curriculum take place in the form of quizzes, questionnaires and plenary feedback both in class and via the use of online platforms such as Unifrog.

 

Gatsby Benchmarks

  1. A stable careers programme
  2. Learning from careers and labour market information
  3. Addressing the needs of each student
  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 

 

In compliance with the Baker Clause, Icknield takes seriously its responsibility to set students on the path that will secure the best outcomes, enabling them to progress in education and work, and give employers access to the highly skilled future employees that they need. We act impartially and promote a full range of academic and technical options for all of our students.

Our students are offered a range of opportunities to connect with further education and training providers, in line with our statutory responsibilities. We ensure that all of our students are aware of the benefits of apprenticeships, T-Levels and other approved technical qualifications and can consider them alongside academic options when making their decisions on their next steps. 

We offer our students opportunities through our CareersFest, Careers Newsletter, mock interviews, Business Mentors, work experience, apprenticeship workshops and other events and partnerships.

In addition to the information in our Careers Library and on our Careers Noticeboard we publish details of careers events, open evenings, apprenticeship vacancies, etc., in our school newsletter weekly and on our Instagram page.

Students and Parents
For any further information on careers education information and guidance (CEIAG) please contact: Matt Ford, Deputy Headteacher (matt.ford@icknield.oxon.sch.uk), or Helen Richardson, Careers Manager (helen.richardson@icknield.oxon.sch.uk, 01491 612 691 ext. 264).

Employers or Educators
If you would like to come into school to speak to students, or support our careers programme in another way, then please look at the 'ICC Provider Access Policy' document below for more details, or contact our Careers Coordinator (helen.richardson@icknield.oxon.sch.uk).

Year 11 Destinations