Welcome to Careers

At Dene Magna we know the importance of giving our students access to all of the ways to go forward from Year 11. We ensure that students are aware of the options and the levels of further education and/or apprenticeships.  We do this in a number of ways:-

Year 6/7 have a day with a company called Bright Futures where they work together on team building and the transition from Primary to Secondary education.

Year 8 students are able to visit local careers fairs - in the past these have been held in Gloucestershire, but recently we have visited Malvern Three Counties Careers Fair.

Year 9 students also visited the Three Counties Careers Fair.  In their PHSE lessons they explore their own skills and take a look at some of the career options they might like to take.  Parents/carers are then given a copy of the Working it Out booklet that students used to do this.  We also use the information from the booklets to arrange work related learning visits to local employers or hold our own seminars on subjects such as IT or Teaching.

Year 10 students have work experience during the first week of July.  Students are encouraged to find a placement that gives them a taste of a possible career path.  Help is at hand should they be unable to decide where to go.  We use programmes such as Career Pilot and Kudos to find out what might suit a student.

Year 11 students have practice interviews with local business people.  They complete a job application form and discuss this with their interviewer.  Students are also encouraged to revisit Career Pilot/Kudos and to use cv+ in readiness for their 6th form/college/apprenticeship applications.

Every single student at Dene Magna is able to attend the career evening that we hold each year. Parents/carers are also encouraged to come along and talk to 6th form providers, apprenticeship companies and colleges.

We invite speakers into Dene Magna on a regular basis.  This is usually done by the Heads of Departments.  If at all possible we try to ask past students, but we also use companies like the Armed Forces, Super Dry and Keir Construction.

Last year Key Stage 4 students visited Cardiff University to encourage them to think about life beyond secondary school.  The year before it was the University of Gloucestershire and we are looking at UWE for the next trip.

In order to comply with Government requirements we employ County Careers Ltd.  We have a dedicated careers advisor and he sees Key Stage 4 students.  We also have 2 in house careers advisors who are available to all our students.  Careers advisors attend Key Stage 4 Consultation Evenings so that they are available to Parents/carers on the night.

Gill Mellor is Dene Magna's Career Advisor; click her name to email her, or reach her by phone or post at the school address.

Liza McCarthy is the Assistant Head with responsibility for Careers in school.