Wider Curriculum
Careers & Enterprise; Relationships, Sex & Health Education; Citizenship; Spirtual, Moral, Social and Cultural Education
At Testbourne Community School, we believe, passionately, that education is more than just achieving academic excellence. In order to lead happy and fulfilled lives, and contribute positively to society, students must develop the personal qualities of kindness, thoughtfulness, responsibility and courteousness whilst learning to respect all members of the community including, most importantly, themselves.
The information on this webpage is reviewed annually in-line with the policy review schedule. If you have any questions or comments regarding any aspect of the wider curriculum provision, please email Mrs E. Sudds at admin@testbourne.school
In addition to the formal national curriculum, Testbourne students will experience the following:
Testbourne Community School offers a bespoke programme of careers education, designed to give students age-appropriate information about different progression routes and careers options, and to develop the skills they need to be able to pursue their goals. Our careers education provision is delivered through the PSHCE programme, supported by assemblies, workshops, trips and visits, external speakers, work experience and one to one careers guidance interviews. Please see our PSHCE curriculum map, and a summary of the CEIAG provision below.
We regularly evaluate our careers programme against the 'Gatsby benchmarks', which is a framework of best practice. Further, we measure the impact of our provision through student voice surveys, work experience evaluations and in monitoring participation rates of students after they leave year 11. Latest published figures show that 97% of Testbourne school leavers stayed in education or employment after finishing key stage 4, which is above the local authority average (95%) and national average (94%). Source: Testbourne Community School - GOV.UK - Find and compare schools in England (compare-school-performance.service.gov.uk)
For more information regarding the Careers & Enterprise programme at Testbourne, please contact Mrs E. Sudds, Head of School and named Careers Leader at admin@testbourne.school.
PSHCE Curriculum Plans for 2021-2022
During their time at Testbourne Community School, all students are entitled to:
- Bespoke transition support from primary to secondary school
- A careers education programme including lessons, workshops, external speakers, work-related learning and taster days.
- Regular feedback on academic progress and how to improve so that goals can be achieved.
- Support to develop better self-awareness to help students recognise their own strengths, areas for development, skills, motivations, and abilities.
- Assistance when accessing and understanding information on open days, jobs, colleges, universities and apprenticeships.
- Signposting to local and borough-wide opportunities such as careers fairs and workshops facilitated by EBP.
- Guidance and support when making decisions about KS4 course options in year 9.
- Parent Information evenings to provide information and guidance to parents and carers at each key stage
- Bespoke support when completing application forms, writing personal statements, CVs etc
- Personalised career guidance and support from a qualified careers advisor
- The opportunity to complete a work experience placement in year 10
Additional examples of CEIAG links at Testbourne Community School:
- Year 9 Mathematicians linked up with Queen Mary’s College to take part in the ‘Quirky Maths Club’ sessions.
- Students competed in the Teen tech Awards, Crest awards and AWE challenge days in Science.
- A Level taster sessions offered to all year 11 students
- Year 8 National UK Maths Challenge UKMC – 40 students logged on remotely to take part
- Duke of Edinburgh Award including links and visits with a school in Uganda
- Opportunities to participate in the 'CyberFirst Girls Competition' run by GCHQ during lockdown 2022
- Formal letter writing, along with information on the recruitment process and interview tips forms part of the Year 11 Business Studies course.
- Year 10 Amazon FC Virtual Tour and live Q&A. focus on databases, algorithms, machine learning, and hardware,
- Open schools Software Challenge run by Surrey University - designing an App for a charity
- Year 8 Raspberry Pi Competition 2022 – Innovation to save the planet
- Subject-specific career links such as the ‘Careers in Maths’ display board, STEM links in Science and theatre links in Drama.
- Year 11s participate in the National Citizenship Service
- Opportunity to investigate at least two famous designers and two companies for Design and Technology GCSE
- Year 10 ‘speed networking event’ in which all year 10s had the opportunity to virtually meet and ask questions to a wide range of professionals from varying industries
View the Student Portal Careers Page
If you are an Employer and would like to contact the school regarding potential opportunities for our students, please read our Provider Access Policy as well as our Careers and Enterprise Policy.
Useful Career Websites
Local Colleges
BCOT: https://www.bcot.ac.uk/
Queen Mary’s College: https://www.qmc.ac.uk/
Sparsholt College: https://www.sparsholt.ac.uk/
Andover College: https://www.andover.ac.uk/
Peter Symonds College: www.psc.ac.uk
HSDC (Alton) College: https://www.hsdc.ac.uk/
Careermag
Careermag for School Leavers explores the different opportunities available to students after school or college. Careermag for School Leavers includes: Sector Spotlights which looks at exciting careers; inspiring case studies from students who have been there and done it; and employability articles to help better prepare you for the world of work.
Careermag for Parents connects students and their parents to the latest career and qualification routes available. Careermag for Parents helps parents and carers understand the options available for young people as well as dispelling industry myths and misconceptions along the way.
https://careermap.co.uk/live-careermags/
National Careers Service
The National Careers Service can help with career, learning and training choices. There are over 800 job profiles which tell you what a job involves and how to get into that career path. It also provides help with CVs and interview advice.
https://nationalcareers.service.gov.uk/
Careerpilot
Career pilot has a range of careers information and tools for 11-19 year olds
https://www.careerpilot.org.uk/
icould
icould.com is a website which uses the power of personal stories to inform and inspire young peoples’ career choices. It has the ability to match potential careers to subjects studied at school and college.
The site features over 1000 videos of real people talking about their careers – explaining their job role, career path and how different factors have shaped their choices.
Amazing Apprenticeships
This website has a huge wealth of videos, factsheets and information all about the different types of apprenticeships.
https://amazingapprenticeships.com/
Success at School
This site provides useful careers guidance and includes a ‘careers zone’ which focuses on different jobs and which subjects to study.
Target Careers
Target Careers is an online guide to potential career paths. It helps students in choosing the most appropriate Post 16 subjects and which careers require specific degrees or A levels.
Parental Guidance
Careers information, advice and guidance from the Career Writers Association for parents.
https://www.parentalguidance.org.uk/
Career Alchemy
Useful resources for parents which provide guidance on how to help their son/daughter explore their future career path.
https://www.careeralchemy.co.uk/
Step into the NHS
The NHS has many different careers opportunities and Step into the NHS has been designed to help guide students and young adults in whether to / get into a career working for the NHS.
Take the Test (stepintothenhs.nhs.uk)
NHS careers AtoZ (stepintothenhs.nhs.uk)
Useful careers websites and resources for parents, staff and students
‘National Careers Service’ Job Profiles:
Use the following link to access job profiles. Use these profiles to explore your career ideas.
National Apprenticeship Service - use the following link to search and apply for vacancies
https://www.apprenticeships.gov.uk/
Icould - Free access to over 1000 personal video stories, detailed job information, plus practical tips, insight and advice and Labour Market Information
Careers box - National on line careers film and video library. You will be able to watch real people doing real jobs to help give you more of an insight
All about Careers - A careers site highlighting job profiles, updates on job sectors, career matching tool and featured employer links
My kinda future - A careers site to build your CV, meet employers and find a job
Get my first job - a website to look at Apprenticeships and Traineeships
https://www.getmyfirstjob.co.uk
U Explore - Students - Start provides you with all the information you need in one place, you can set up a personalised profile to help you make better education and career choices.
Parents- Use Start at home with your child to help cut through the fog of careers advice and begin making more informed choices – every step of the way
Success at School - Career advice for schools and students aged 13-19. Search jobs, advice & find out about employers, work experience, courses, career choices, apprenticeships.
General useful careers sector websites
http://ccskills.org.uk/careers - Creative jobs and careers
https://www.healthcareers.nhs.uk/ - NHS careers
http:careers-in-sport.co.uk & http://www.sportengland.org/ - Careers in sport
http://www.citb.co.uk/ - Construction Industry Training Board
http://www.ecitb.org.uk/ - Engineering Industry Training Board
http://www.allaboutlaw.co.uk/ - Careers in law
http://www.remit.co.uk/ - Apprenticeships in the Motor Vehicle Trade
www.futuremorph.org - FutureMorph Science and maths careers
www.wherestemcantakeyou.co.uk - Where STEM can take you.
Public Services
https://www.raf.mod.uk/recruitment/
http://www.staffordshire.police.uk/
http://www.army.mod.uk/
http://www.royalnavy.mod.uk/careers
Useful College websites: Check open days and courses
- southstaffs.ac.uk – Lichfield, Tamworth, Rodbaston & Cannock
- walsallcollege.ac.uk – Walsall College
- staffordcoll.ac.uk – Stafford College
- bmetc.ac.uk – Sutton Campus (Birmingham Met College)
- ucbcourses.com – University College Birmingham
- boa-academy.com – BO Academy Birmingham
- babington.co.uk - Babington Business College Lichfield
- https://www.accesscreative.ac.uk/ Access Creative College Birmingham ( games, media, music related courses)
- http://www.walsallstudioschool.co.uk/ ( music and other creative related courses)
Useful Work Study Programmes, Personal Development. Traineeships and Apprenticeships (traineeships if 4’s in both Maths and English are unlikely)
- Nova Training: (Julie Stokoe) 01543 462800 novatraining.co.uk Cannock
- APM Cannock Ruth Edwards Edwards@apm-uk.co.uk
- Performance through People - ptp-training.co.uk
- Juniper Lichfield Hannah Doody doody@junipertraining.co.uk
- Equality training http://equality.training/ Health and Social and Childcare Tamworth and Stafford Debbie Oakley debbieoakley@equality.training
- NCS - Darren Carpenter Carpenter@apm-uk.co.uk
- Princes Trust Cannock - Smith@staffordshirefire.gov.uk
Post 18 Useful websites
- http://www.notgoingtouni.co.uk/ - looks at alternative options to going to University including Higher and Degree Apprenticeships
- http://www.frontier.ac.uk - Gap/Year Voluntary abroad working in Wildlife and Conservation, Teaching and Medicine
- www.ucas.com – Key site to support a University application process
- www.prospects.co.uk - Information on graduate employment and demographics
- www.push.co.uk – Ruthlessly independent university guide (student view)
- www.applytouni.com – Independent site supporting the university application process
- www.unistats.co.uk – Search, review and compare subjects at universities and colleges in the UK
- www.studential.com/ - Lots of useful support from interviews to key questions about HE
- www.thecompleteuniversityguide.co.uk – offers independent HE picture, course search and money facts
- www.qaa.ac.uk – Quality assurance site – reports on HE institutions
- www.yearoutgroup.co.uk and www.heguide.org.uk to find out more about taking a gap year
- www.nomisweb.co.uk or www.statistics.gov.uk for Labour Market Information (LMI) –it is important to consider what employment opportunities are going to be available in the future and where these are likely to be
- www.direct.gov.uk/studentfinance. For information on student finance from ‘Student Finance England’ www.studentcashpoint.co.uk. Student funding
- www.opendays.com University open days listed here
- www.studential.com/personalstatements Template guides for personal statements
- www.studentastic.co.uk Tips on how to survive the student life! www.bestcourse4me.com includes an excellent clearing course finder if you need a results day Plan B
Apprenticeships
Citizenship is a statutory national curriculum subject that develops students’ understanding of democracy, government and the rights and responsibilities of citizens.
RSHE, which became statutory in September 2020, includes the teaching of healthy relationships, physical health and mental wellbeing. Citizenship and RSHE at Testbourne Community School is predominantly taught through timetabled PSHCE lessons (personal, social, health, citizenship & economic education), supported by theme days, assemblies and cross-curricular projects).
Please do see our 2020/2021 PSHCE Curriculum Plans below to see an example of our usual provision.
Spiritual – Explore beliefs and experience; respect faiths, feelings and values; enjoy learning about oneself, others and the surrounding world; use imagination and creativity; reflect.
Moral – Recognise right and wrong; respect the law; understand consequences; investigate moral and ethical issues; offer reasoned views.
Social – Investigate moral issues; appreciate diverse viewpoints; participate, volunteer and cooperate; resolve conflict; engage with the ‘British values’ of democracy, the rule of law, liberty, respect and tolerance.
Cultural – Appreciate cultural influences; appreciate the role of Britain’s parliamentary system; participate in cultural opportunities; understand, accept, respect and celebrate diversity.
Spiritual, Moral, Social and Cultural development is at the heart of everything we do at Testbourne Community School and, as such, aspects of SMSC are embedded into each and every curriculum area, whether implicitly or explicitly. SMSC and British Values (democracy, the rule of law, liberty, respect & tolerance) are explored in greater depth within the Religious Education programme, PSHCE (personal, social, health, citizenship & economic education) and through themed assemblies. Additionally, students engage in a weekly SMSC session as part of the morning Tutorial Programme; during this time students are given the opportunity to develop their understanding and discuss a range of topical and current issues.
Testbourne Community School