The Cheadle Academy

CIAG


At The Cheadle Academy we deliver highly regarded IAG and Economic Wellbeing curriculum activities and have created excellent networks and connections with the private and further education sector. Employer Engagement and links to colleges and Higher Education provide not only real world insight into post 16 choices but provides relevance for subjects at GCSE. We align all GCSEs to transferable employability skills to further enhance this process.

Students should be better prepared for life when they leave the academy as well as being academically competent.

We deliver activities that achieve the following:

  • identify the main qualities and skills to enter and thrive in the working world
  • assess, undertake and manage risk
  • take action to improve their chances in their career
  • manage change and transition
  • develop approaches to working with others, problem-solving and action planning
  • understand and apply skills and qualities for enterprise
  • demonstrate and apply understanding of economic ideas
  • develop greater motivation and determination

These are achieved in a number of ways, including:

Industry Day - KS4

Every year we run a successful ‘Industry Day’ for our Year 10 students.

Our purpose is to provide our students with a series of team building and problem solving exercises which are placed in an industry/business context. We place them in groups, each with a professional adviser from a local company.

The previous success of this enterprise was due in no small part, to the generous support from local businesses and companies.

Companies involved in IAG

 It is the involvement of the local business and industrial community that provides the programme with relevance in the eyes of our students.

Careers Convention. - KS3, 4 & 5

Over 30 Further and Higher Education providers, training providers and employers available to provide advice and guidance on careers and qualifications.

Essential to all Year 10 and 11 students, so as to assess the options available after leaving the academy and a good idea for Year 9 students to gain valuable information ahead of option choices for GCSE subjects.

Opportunity for employers/colleges to meet TCA talent and students to discuss future options.

CASCAID - KS3, 4 & 5

Students have full access to careers guidance programmes online and these programmes are designed to create personalised questions in order to provide guidance on what careers would suit the student’s personality and interests.

Enterprise Day - KS4

Students have the opportunity to practise the skills needed to run a successful company. They take over a business that manufactures products and their task is to run their company as successfully as they can.

They need to choose the right people to carry out the important roles and think through problems before taking action. They will complete a ‘Business Plan’ and keep ‘Financial Records’ which must be accurate. Each team creates a business plan with all of the information needed to carry out the activities.

Video link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3uDeWVQVfCo&list=TL4baeoQ4WQ0rmakHPdszlq8TyBAGKRpaV

Year 11 Pathways evening - KS4

Year 11 and parents attend to learn more about post-16 opportunities, principally from presentations by TCA staff but also present are TCA 6th Form and Stoke on Trent College; parents and students appreciate content and timing at the start of Year 11 before the decision making has to be done. With a full and frank presentation on apprenticeships, BTEC courses and A -Levels

Associations with local colleges. - KS3, 4 & 5

Having great links with local colleges means that students can be kept fully aware of all the opportunities they have post 16, these include apprenticeships, vocational courses and alternative programmes of study that specialise in certain areas. We are absolutely determined to make sure students are informed of everything they can do and how to achieve it, to maximise potential and achieve success in their chosen field. We have colleges visit the academy and present to students and talk to some in one to one interviews.

Higher Horizons - KS3, 4 & 5

We have fully utilised the provision made available by Higher Horizons for both disadvantaged and advantaged students.

Students from both the NCOP and all other backgrounds have taken part in events provided by Higher Horizons and their partner organisations.

Including;

  • Performance in Education where students learnt through a theatre production about post 16 options
  • Made for Education where students learnt about goal setting and exam preparation

Entrust - KS4

We have worked with Entrust in a number of ways; we have individual careers interviews every term with Y10 and Y11 students who we have identified as potential NEET.

We have also placed some of our disadvantaged students this year on their Employability Course Level 1 which was delivered in the academy and they all passed.

UNiFY Residential Summer Schools - KS4 & 5

UNiFY is a three-day residential summer school that take place each year for Year 10s and Year 12s. UNiFY are government-funded residential summer schools, organised and run by our partner universities, Harper Adams University, Keele University, Staffordshire University and the University of Chester under the Higher Horizons+ umbrella. UNiFY lets you experience what it’s like to be a student. You will get the chance to experience academic lectures and seminars, live in student halls of accommodation, and experience the social life with a night in the Student Union.

Students are attending this residential, 60% of which are Pupil Premium.

Key Stage 3 Specific CIAG

  • Assemblies on a wide range of CIAG topics
  • CASCAID programme offered to all students with raising aspirations session (guests from industry invited into the academy) tailored to the career interests of students
  • Careers modules delivered as part of PSHE
  • Guest speakers from a range of professional backgrounds 

Summary

As a result of all the IAG activities at TCA, and the on-going advice, work experience placements, taught PSHE curriculum which includes many aspects of IAG and support students find appropriate post 16 courses more easily and swiftly and we can manage the transition from the academy to 6th Form, college or FE much more effectively.

 

Careers and IAG is co-ordinated at The Cheadle Academy by Mr R Hall 

rhall@thecheadleacademy.co.uk

01538 493900