Our School

Rationale

The Government’s Careers Strategy (December 2017) and Statutory Guidance, Careers guidance and access for education (October 2018) set out a long-term plan to build a world-class career system that will help young people and adults choose the career that is right for them. This statutory guidance has been updated to expand on the aims set out in the strategy to make sure that all young people in secondary school get a programme of advice and guidance that is stable, structured and delivered by individuals with the right skills and experience

At Harrogate High School use the Gatsby Charitable Foundation’s Benchmarks (see tab Gatsby Benchmarks for good careers guidance) to develop and improve our careers provision and ensure that we fulfill legal duties to ensure we provide independent careers guidance and provide opportunities to a range of providers to inform pupils about technical education qualifications or apprenticeships. Our Careers Leader will work with the following to ensure outstanding provision.

Careers Structure


Harrogate High School is also part of the York and North Yorkshire Careers hub and therefore we work with a cluster of schools in the wider locality to share good practice and develop provision. We also work with a range of external providers and local employers to enrich our careers programme, some of which can be seen below:

External Agencies

Providers

Further Education and Agencies

Employers2


Equality and Diversity

Equality and Diversity Careers education is provided to all students and provision is made to allow all students to access the curriculum. Students are encouraged to follow career paths that suit their interests, skills and strengths with the absence of stereotypes. All students are provided with the same opportunities and diversity is celebrated.

For all CEIAG events there is close liaison between the CEIAG lead and SENCO to ensure provision meets the needs / is appropriate for selected students. All events on the CEIAG plan are communicated to the SENCO to ensure additional support can be put in place if necessary.


Provider Access Statement  (reviewed January 2023)         

Rationale

High quality careers education and guidance in school is critical to young people’s futures. It helps to prepare them for the workplace by providing a clear understanding of the world of work including the routes to jobs and careers that they might find engaging and rewarding. It supports them to acquire the self-development and career management skills they need to achieve positive employment destinations. This helps students to choose their pathways, improve their life chances and contribute to a productive and successful economy.

As the number of apprenticeships rises every year and technical education/training pathways are expanded, it becomes increasingly important that all young people have a full understanding of all the options available to them post-16 and post-18 including wider technical education options such as T-Levels and Higher Technical Qualifications.

Commitment

Harrogate High School is committed to ensuring there is an opportunity for a range of education and training providers to access students, for the purpose of informing them about approved technical education qualifications and apprenticeships.  Harrogate High School is fully aware of the responsibility to set students on the path that will secure the best outcome which will enable them to progress in education and work and give employers the highly skilled people they need. That means acting impartially, in line with the statutory duty, and not showing bias towards any route, be that academic or technical.

Harrogate High School endeavours to ensure that all students are aware of all routes to higher skills and can access information on technical options and apprenticeships (The Department of Education, July 2021, “Baker Clause”: supporting students to understand the full range of education and training options, and Provider Access Legislation, January 2023).

Aims

The Harrogate High School Policy for Access to Education and Training Providers has the following aims:

  • To develop the knowledge and awareness of our students of all career pathways available to them, including technical qualifications and apprenticeships
  • To support young people to be able to learn more about opportunities for education and training outside of school before making crucial choices about their future options
  • To reduce drop out from courses and avoid the risk of students becoming NEET (young people Not in Education, Employment or Training). 

Student Entitlement

Harrogate High School fully supports the statutory requirement for students to have direct access to providers of further education training, technical training, and apprenticeships.  The school will comply with the new legal requirement to organise at least four encounters with providers of approved technical education qualifications or apprenticeships between Year 8 and Year 11. This will be done through assemblies and through providers attending careers events at school, such as the annual Careers Fair and talks organised throughout the year.

Development

This policy has been developed and is reviewed annually by the Careers Officer and Deputy Headteacher based on current good practice guidelines issued by the Department for Education.

Links with other policies

It supports and is underpinned by key school policies including the Careers Guidance policy, Safeguarding and Child Protection School-Specific Arrangements, NSAT Safeguarding and Child Protection policy, Equality and Diversity policy, and SEND and Inclusion policy.

Equality and Diversity

Access to providers is available and promoted to allow all students to access information about providers of further education, technical education, and apprenticeships. Harrogate High School is committed to encouraging all students to make decisions about their future based on impartial information.

Requests for access

Requests for access should be directed to Lucy Greenwood, Deputy Headteacher.  Mrs Greenwood may be contacted by telephone or email on lgreenwood@hhs.nsat.org.uk or on 01423 548800.

Grounds for granting requests for access

Access will be given to providers during school assemblies, at our annual Careers Fair, on our CARES Community Days or during the school day at careers events/talks organised by the school. Students may also travel to visit providers as part of an educational visit to be organised in partnership with Harrogate High School.

Details of premises or facilities to be provided to a person who is given access

Harrogate High School will provide an appropriate room or assembly hall to be agreed. All rooms have computers, projectors and screens provided. Computer rooms/rooms with laptops can also be arranged. The Careers Officer will organise this, working closely with the provider to ensure the facilities are appropriate to the audience.  Appropriate safeguarding checks will be carried out.  Providers will be met and supervised by a member of staff who will facilitate.

Live/Virtual encounters

Harrogate High School will consider live online encounters with providers where requested, and these may be broadcast into classrooms or the school assembly hall. Technology checks in advance will be required to ensure compatibility of systems.

Parents and Carers

Parental involvement is encouraged, and parents may be invited to attend the events to meet providers.

Management

The Careers Officer coordinates all provider requests and is responsible to the Deputy Headteacher.

Complaints Procedure

Any complaints about this policy should be raised to Lucy Greenwood (Deputy Headteacher), email: lgreenwood@hhs.nsat.org.uk.

Mrs Greenwood will raise the complaint to Sukhraj Gill, Head of Academy, Harrogate High School.

Monitoring review and evaluation

The policy is monitored and evaluated annually via the Senior Leadership Team.

Appendix

Providers who have been invited into Harrogate High School to date this year include:

  • Harrogate College
  • Harrogate Grammar School Sixth Form
  • Intuitions School of Hairdressing & Beauty Therapy
  • St John Fisher & St Aidan’s Associated Sixth Form
  • Rossett School Sixth Form
  • White Rose Beauty College

Destinations of previous pupils from Harrogate High School include:

  • Army
  • Askham Bryan College
  • Harrogate College
  • Harrogate Grammar School Sixth Form
  • King James’s School Sixth Form
  • Leeds College of Building
  • Loughborough College
  • Middlesbrough College
  • Prior Pusgrove College
  • Royal Conservatoire of Scotland
  • St John Fisher & St Aidan’s Associated Sixth Form
  • Strive
  • Synergy Hair
  • White Rose Beauty College
  • York College 

NB: Underline = denotes apprenticeship provider or provider of technical education


Monitoring, review, evaluation and development of CEIAG

The following provision is reviewed by the Senior Leader with responsibility for Careers:

  • Annual review of destination data
  • PSHE monitoring and quality assurance (Careers education elements) alongside the PSHE Lead
  • Feedback on the effectiveness of the CEIAG programme is sought through student voice/questionnaires. Resulting action points then feed into the following years’ planning process to ensure they are addressed.
  • Tracking of activities is done via the Compass+ platform. Compass+ is an online site developed by the Careers & Enterprise Company that supports schools to meet their statutory duties around careers guidance. It helps us to monitor students’ progress and engagement in relation to CEIAG. It facilitates systematic tracking of all activities linked to CEIAG and the Gatsby benchmarks encompassing sub-groups. Review of the school’s adherence to the Gatsby Benchmarks is through this platform, which also acts as an online self-evaluation tool for schools with follow-up improvement actions.
  • We also use Unifrog. This is an online platform which enables students to explore careers profiles, produce their CV and covering letter for job applications and log interactions and competencies.  Our Careers Adviser also constructs and stores individual student progression plans on Unifrog where these can be shared securely with students and parents.

View accreditations

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FMSIS
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Career Mark Logo
Leeds Trinity In Partnership Logo 2016(cropped)
WAS_NCB_2020-2023 (2)
2022 Green Education Accreditation