Catcote Academy is very proud to have contributed to a new publication on using the Gatsby Benchmarks with students with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). Good Career Guidance: Perspectives from the Special Educational Needs and Disabilities sector contains 12 expert perspectives on using the Gatsby Benchmarks with students with SEND, and has been developed by the Gatsby Foundation with The Careers & Enterprise Company, and Disability Rights UK. It is intended to inspire Careers Leaders, teachers and all those working with young people with SEND, across specialist provision and mainstream schools and colleges.
This publication has been designed to sit alongside The Careers & Enterprise Company’s SEND Gatsby Benchmark Toolkit, which provides detailed advice and ideas to help you meet each Benchmark.
At Catcote Academy and Sixth Form, we aim to equip our students with the knowledge, skills, and attributes to achieve their full potential in learning and work. It is important that students are enabled to make informed decisions about post 16 routes and the relevant pathways to support their longer-term plans. We have a planned program in Key Stage 3, Key Stage 4 and Key Stage 5, and work to the Gatsby Benchmarks and the the DFE Careers guidance and access for education and training providers January 2023.
Careers Advice and Guidance
‘We, the staff and governors, aspire to fulfil our student’s entitlement to work by creating real employment opportunities to enable all to reach their full potential.’
The school careers plan sets out how the school intends to provide a fit for purpose careers programme with the available resources which will provide our students with the knowledge, inspiration and ability to take ownership of their own career action plans which will enable them to succeed in their chosen career paths.
We have established partnerships with key stakeholders and external career providers and local businesses, we have achieved a number of successes for young people with learning difficulties and additional needs, enabling them to secure full time paid employment.
How Careers Support Works
All young people need a planned program of activities throughout their school years to equip them to make choices that are right for them, and to prepare them for adulthood and the ‘world of work.’
Catcote has worked in partnership with a local Careers Education Company, Talentino, for a number of years. They are a niche career development organisation that offers a bespoke programme for young people with learning difficulties and additional needs who aspire to enter the ‘world of work. The programme is based on Talentinos innovative careers programme designed specifically for mainstream schools and colleges called ‘Careers at Every Level.’
Catcote provides a bespoke and tailored careers programme to our students and gives impartial information, advice and guidance. We have professionally qualified careers staff based in school to support students from years 7 to 14.
