Careers Information and Advice

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The Ripley Academy has a statutory and moral duty to provide students in Y8-Y13 with careers education, information and guidance (CEIAG) but here at our academy we extend this provision to Y7 also.
This education, information and guidance takes place through the curriculum, assemblies and one to one interviews. When interviews are deemed appropriate for a child to receive they are organised by Mrs Alexander-Brown (Head of Careers) and communicated to students via tutors.

The school aims to provide good career guidance by adhering to the eight Gatsby benchmarks of Good Career Guidance, which are as follows:

Here at the Ripley Academy you are entitled to:

Clear advice and information about ALL the options available, so that you understand what they involve.

Support and guidance to help you make choices and complete a career plan/profile for the future.
Help to decide what to do when you leave your courses, including further learning, training and employment.
A programme of careers education helping you develop skills and knowledge to make choices and the transition to work and learning.
An opportunity to learn about the world of work.

Our independent careers advisor for the academy works with us once a week to help us provide this support, we also give our Y10 and Y12 students the opportunity to take part in work experience weeks in the summer term.

Stronger links are being built between schools and employers in the D2N2 Local Enterprise Partnership area, to help young people better realise their career potential. We believe a successful economy needs businesses and schools to work closer together on this issue. The Enterprise Advisor for The Ripley Academy is Helen Robinson, who has a extensive background in the Human Resources sector. Helen will be working with the school to develop stronger links with business to support our students in developing their employability skills in readiness for later life.

We also invite guest speakers from a variety of educational and vocational institutions in to speak with our students in assembly and provide workshops. In addition to this we provide curriculum based learning opportunities as well as visits and after school events in order to fully support our students. Below is a snapshot of our careers programme.

If students, parents, teachers or employers would like more information they should contact our Head of Careers:

Mr. R. Bannister

01773 746334 / 01332 880260

rbannister@jrn.education

Year 7

Students are taught a PSHE module that involves looking at job aspirations, skills for work and the importance of education
Students take part in STEM activity days

Year 8

All students attend a university campus visit
University workshops are conducted with all students following up from the campus visit

Year 9

We have a careers focussed unit in PSHE relating to enterprise and how to be enterprising
Exploration of options at KS4 through assemblies, tutor time and after school events

Year 10

In this year we look at employability in PSHE lessons in the build up to work experience
All students take part in apprenticeship workshops
Compulsory work experience week conducted in July

Year 11

College and sixth form application workshops
Post 16 evening and taster sessions
College visits for identified students

Sixth Form

Sixth form

UCAS applications is a core part of the sixth form enrichment programme, as are interview techniques and writing personal statements
Work experience in the summer of Year 12 (after exams)

The academy will assess the impact of the careers programme through such things as student and parent voice, statistical analysis of work experience placements and NEET figures.