Careers
Careers is taught as part of the weekly tutorial sessions that all students have from Year 7 through to Year 13. The tutorial sessions are delivered by Form Tutors under the guidance of the Heads of School and Careers Coordinator. Careers work begins in Year 7 but there is obviously a greater weighting of careers issues delivered in the middle and upper school.
The school liaises closely with the Lincolnshire and Rutland branch of Connexions (the county’s careers provider), and one of their Careers Advisors, Mr Neil Toyne, visits the school on a fortnightly basis and either sees students individually where the need arises or as a whole year group. Appointments can be made with him at Y9, Y11 and Y13 parent’s evenings but he can also be contacted at the Connexions Office in Louth, should you wish to speak with him at any other time. The Careers Coordinator in school also arranges individual interview sessions in January for Y11 and in July for Year 12, and parents are welcome to attend those if they wish.
Work experience is available for one week to Year 10 students. Year 12 are encouraged to gain work experience either in their holiday time or in the period after their AS exams in June. Work experience is especially important for Year 12 students interested in careers linked to care or medicine i.e. Doctor, Dentist, Vet, Teacher, or where the competition for university places is great i.e. Law. There is also the great opportunity for any sixth former to gain a week’s work experience in Conlie, France, as part of the school’s annual language exchange programme.
All students have unlimited access to the school's Careers Library, which is equipped with up-to-date information about careers and universities. The library has an interview area with a telephone so that students can use it for career and university related calls. There are computer workstations linked to the net, and a TV and video so that the extensive range of career and university information can be viewed in school.
Training is given on computer programmes that outline possible careers such as (KUDOS), or universities and courses.
For any careers issue, the form tutor is usually the first person to talk to and they will be able to point a student in the right direction, which might simply be to a book or website, or it could be another member of staff. Miss Tracey Evision is in charge of the Careers library, and she also coordinates work experience placements for Year 10 students. Mr Martin Schofield is the Careers Coordinator in school, and he is also Head of Upper School. Mrs Bulman, Head of Middle School and Mr Willoughby, Head of Lower School also have a key role in the delivery of careers.
