Student Development and Careers

Senior School pupil on work experience cleaning a dog

Exploring the Professional World in the Senior School

At St Chris, our curriculum is focused on understanding real-world problems, events and the demands of modern careers.

As the world becomes ever-more fast-paced, we must prepare our students to be dynamic, self-empowered and independent individuals. Our Senior School Careers program is the cornerstone of this educational strategy. In the Senior School, students explore the working world through two units of work a year, during their weekly PSHE lessons and this is subsidised further during Company Time discussions with Advisers.

Excellence by a standard that isn’t applicable to the real world isn’t really excellence at all. We’re looking for excellence that’s relevant to the world in which our children will live.

Topics of study include:

Year 7 (I Group)
Careers, enterprise and raising aspirations
Year 8 (II Group)
Community and careers, including volunteering
Year 9 (III Group)
Career options and employability skills
Year 10 (IV Group)
The value of work experience
Year 11 (V Group)
Application processes and career progression
Year 12 (Lower VI)
Career opportunities, applications and work experience

Online Careers Resources

Each student is given access to a Unifrog account which provides up-to-date careers advice, vital information about a range of career and study pathways to help them make informed choices. Through this account, students can take quizzes to explore their skills, interests and personality and then match these to possible career choices. There is a careers library, subjects library and know-how library that students can investigate and shortlist areas that they are interested in.

Students also have access to webinars and Massive Online Open Courses (MOOCs) to extend and enrich the curriculum, actively developing their independent learning skills and diversifying their skill set. In addition, students can use Unifrog to record their extra-curricular, super-curricular and work experience opportunities to help with future applications.

The platform is also used to support applications to university through UCAS and work experience. These resources allow our students to explore their options beyond school independently and have productive conversations with staff at the school to garner insight into a specific industry.

St Chris senior school pupil on work experience

Networking with the Professional World

Sixth Form students at St Chris often create LinkedIn accounts with guided provision from the PSHE department. Through LinkedIn, students can explore sector insights, and articles about accessing a certain career path, and look for part-time work. These students in PSHE lessons discuss building a professional presence and a network of people.

Work Experience

In both Year 10 and Year 12, students can complete a work experience placement during the Late Summer Programme (LSP) week. This is a fantastic opportunity to explore the working world, make connections and improve self-confidence, communication, and independence. Students choose to undertake work experience placements in the local and wider community, usually selected and organised by themselves and their families.

On each placement, students are visited by a member of staff who assesses their progress and uses student and employer feedback to look at pathways to further career opportunities. Placements are helpful for students to understand what it’s like working in an office, hospitality, or on-the-go environment.

What will my child gain from a Work Experience week?

Students who undertake a work experience week develop a good understanding of their likes and dislikes in the working world which helps them to form judgement on their desired career beyond St Chris.

Work experience also offers opportunities to those who do not want to go on residentials away from home during LSP week. Completing work experience allows students to undertake supported professional development and be exposed to a wealth of new experiences.

Students gain an elevated sense of independence in finding and procuring their work experience placements. Those undertaking a work experience placement have hands-on experience practising their communication skills to navigate the working world. Work experience placements help our students to uncover their motivations, strengths, and weaknesses.

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