Pupil Pathway

Holy Cross pupils begin to consider their future beyond secondary school as early as Year 7 and we have an integrated Careers Programme which meet the Gatsby Benchmarks.  As a school we understand that one of our main responsibilities is to prepare young people for an ever-changing world of work.

All pupils study Careers on Personal Development days that fall throughout the school year.  This gives pupils the opportunity to explore different aspects of careers, become aware of their strengths and weaknesses and extend their career aspirations.

Overview

In March, the whole school will celebrate National Careers Week.  This will include tutor time activities, careers-based learning within the curriculum and events such as mock interviews for Year 10 and the Careers Fair which is open to all year groups and their parents after school.  Years 7-10 will also have the opportunity to take part in MegaHub days provided by IN4.0 in collaboration with National Cyber Security Centre and others.

In Year 7 our pupils are introduced to the wider world and start to consider routes to their dream jobs and their range of post-16 options.

During Year 8 we start to identify individual key skills and think about how these would benefit pupils in their future years.  We also have the opportunity to take a group of Year 8 pupils to visit Edge Hill University to learn more about Higher Education.

Year 9 is about raising aspirations for our pupils in readiness for selecting their GCSE options.  The whole year group will have the opportunity to visit our annual Careers Fair.

In Year 10 we concentrate on future focus.  Year 10 pupils will take part mock interviews with local employers, Colleges, Governors and friends of Holy Cross.  Year 10 pupils will undertake one week of work experience in the Summer term.  We use the Unifrog platform – which all Year 10 pupils have access too – to facilitate these placements.  Year 10 will also have the chance to visit some of our local colleges in preparation for making their post-16 selections in early Year 11.

In Year 11, support is given to all pupils to make the right choices and transition successfully to post-16.  We pride ourselves in supporting our pupils on to the next stage of their employment, education and training.  All pupils have guidance appointments with our Independent Careers Advisor.  In December, Year 11 will make their College Applications in school and prepare for interviews in January.  Year 11 pupils also have open door access to Mrs Love on a Thursday and Friday if they need help with finding college courses, figuring out transport and bursaries etc.

Parents and outside agencies who would like further information about our careers provision in school can contact Mrs Love by telephone or by email to

Link to Unifrog can be found here