Preparation for Adulthood
At Hardwick House School we believe that all pupils have an entitlement to experiences, encounters, information, advice and guidance that supports them in being prepared and in making informed choices about their future. To be prepared and ready for adulthood, they need to develop the skills, attributes and qualifications needed to succeed. To be prepared for employment, they need access to excellent careers guidance and experiences needed to make informed choices.
At each stage of their learning and development, we therefore prepare children and young people for future responsibilities, experiences, developing independence and moving on to the next phase of education.
Preparation for Adulthood:
The school curriculum and other planned activities contribute to building these essential skills. Every child has weekly lessons in cooking and social communication. Community skills is a timetabled lesson in Primary, whilst community visits are regularly scheduled for our secondary learners too, including visits to places such as the library, local shops, cafés and restaurants, and leisure facilities such as the cinema or theatre. In addition, PE lessons often take place in local community venues including the leisure centre and local climbing centre. Friday afternoon enrichment has a broader range of community based activities based on learner choices.
Our secondary children also have discreet timetabled lessons for PSHCEE and life skills. These are essential for learning about issues such as health, relationships and sex education and personal finance, as well as practical skills such as doing the laundry, amongst others!
Careers:
At Primary, children learn about their role within their family, the school and wider community, making responsible decisions and being ambitious about their futures.
At Secondary, we focus on considering and then making choices about education, training or employment beyond school. We are committed to a careers programme that is aspirational for all young people and ensures that all students in Years 7 and 8 consider a breadth of careers and from Years 9 to 11 receive quality 1:1 careers guidance at school, motivating and enabling all of our pupils to progress onto exciting and appropriate destinations at post 16. PSHCEE lessons include consideration of local and national labour market opportunities and trends. As well as attending appropriate careers and skills events locally, we host an annual Careers Coffee Morning and invite a range of employers to meet our learners in a relaxed and accessible event.
At all phases we discuss learners’ ambitions and the skills and experiences our learners will need to achieve them at annual reviews with parents. We have a packed timetable of personal development activities including a broad range of employer encounters, visits, visitors and where appropriate, work experience and employer encounters.
In addition, we begin to offer visits to colleges and university at an age appropriate level from Primary, as learners get to visit local college activities such as a pantomime and art exhibitions. These increase as learners move closer to GCSE examinations with formal college taster visits and transition programmes.
Employers:
We value our links with local and national employers and encourage visits and visitors throughout the school year. If you would like to support our careers education in any way please do make contact, we would love to hear from you.
Monitoring and Evaluation:
Our school measures and assesses the impact of the careers programme on pupils against the 8 Gatsby Benchmarks and through the Careers and Enterprise Company Compass Tool regularly updated.