Welcome to the Newark Academy Autumn term Careers Newsletter. My name is Miss Peňa and it is a pleasure to have the opportunity to write to you as I start my headship at Newark Academy.
I strongly believe that good careers education and guidance can equip students with the knowledge, skills and experience to make ambitious, informed choices at every step on their path to individual greatness. At Newark Academy, our fantastic careers programme skillfully led by Mrs Brown has been recognised by a national award.
Throughout their time at Newark Academy, students will experience a menu of lessons, workshops and career related events, including work experience in year 10. We aim to make careers activities relevant, engaging and inspirational and to ensure that advice is threaded into students’ daily school experience from Year 7 to year 13.
We will send you a careers newsletter at the beginning of each term to provide you with information on things such as:
My name is Mrs Brown and as well as being the Pastoral Leader for our post16 provision, the other part of my role is Level 6 Careers Leader and Careers Advisor. I’m responsible for delivering a programme that ensures that the fantastic young people at Newark Academy have exposure to the very best opportunities, to support their personal development and chosen pathways. However, I don’t do this alone! I work with a number of dedicated and highly knowledgeable key staff in school, who oversee and support this programme.
It gives me great pleasure to tell you that just prior to breaking up for the summer holidays, we were successful in achieving our first re-accreditation in the Quality in Careers Standard, which is a Nationally recognised award that gives recognition to schools and colleges that are performing well with their CEIAG provision. A number of students were involved in the process of the re-accreditation, being interviewed by the assessor and were exceptional ambassadors for Newark Academy!
The Government provide a framework for schools and colleges to deliver excellent careers provisions - The Gatsby Benchmarks. Each term, we carry out an assessment against 8 criteria, shown below. In our final assessment at the end of the last academic, Newark Academy met 100% in all areas, apart from one GB7, which was 91%. The assessment is due to take place again before we break up for Christmas, at which point we hope to move to 100% in all areas.
Qualifications Framework
The qualifications framework is a formal structure that in which learning level descriptors are given for each stage of learning. I thought it would be useful for students, parents / carers to have an oversight of this, as it enables you to see at a glance where there son or daughter is at on their learning journey. In addition, it helps to know what level young people should be aiming for, as their next step in their educational and career pathway.
Students at Newark Academy have all been launched on to Unifrog, and you may have heard them talking about it. We use it extensively in 6th form and have started to using it more lower down school, in order to support our students with decisions they might face as part of their career pathway.
Parents and carers can now have full access to Unifrog, which means you can now do your own research around your son or daughters options and pathways.
Please read this letter to find out more about how you can access this platform.
This week has been our first ever WOW week and students have be launched with an assembly delivered by Anthony Adams. Anthony has a background in psychology, which led him to a profession in the world of careers.
Anthony has been talking to our students about the concept of 'healthy mind, healthy career' together with an insight into his own personal journey. Anthony spoke to our students about how important it is to recognise our own values, when considering the type of work we aspire to do and the type of companies we want to work for.
Anthony also talked about how we need to recognise our own strengths and what good character strengths are.
It was really interesting to hear Anthony talk about his own career choices and his motivations for making the decisons he had made along his journey - I do hope our students found this full crew interesting and motivational.
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Also, as part of WOW Week, we have launched are CEIAG programme with students, giving an insight into what is coming up this term, who they can talk to about careers and the importance of careers education.
Students have been reminded about their Unifrog account, as a short video will be sent to them via email, advising them on how to get the best out of this platform!
During WOW Week, students and parents / carers have been sent a 'job of the week' each day, to provide labour market information on various careers. We hope that students will see something that they would like to find out more about and get them started on a pathway to their potential career.
If you are interested in finding out more about labour market information, please check out the Unifrog parent letter enclosed in this newsletter, as this platform provides a whole range of information that is useful to enabling people to make more informed choices about their futures.
My name is Amelia, and I am a year 12 student in NA6. I am studying Biology, Math's, Chemistry, and Business. At first, these subjects did come as a huge challenge for me as the bridge between GCSE and A-level is massive but now I have settled into my subjects and feel confident in my performance. In the future, I want to study medicine at university, as I have always found an interest in helping people with illnesses, however I am also considering law. You get a lot more freedom In Sixth Form. This is really helping me manage my own time and independent study, which will be useful for university and jobs in the future. I have received a lot of support from teachers and leaders, and I know I have people to ask for help when I am struggling.
Hi! I’m Olivia, and I’m currently a second-year student at Nottingham Trent University studying BA (Hons) Youth Justice! The adjustment was hard, getting used to a new environment, new academic structures: having two-hour lectures rather than fifty-minute lessons! And the biggest thing for me was having to make friends all over again! Just like the first day at school. However as much as I wasn’t looking forward to the new adjustments, I am so glad I took the opportunity to go to university, even being there just over a year has taught me so many new skills such as finance skills (and budgeting), time management but most importantly its given me a lot more independence than I could’ve ever had! Unfortunately, I missed out on a lot of experiences that the typical fresher (first year) would usually have, I made the financial decision to commute into university rather than stay in student accommodation, so nights out and other ‘friendship’ building activities weren’t really an option for me! This put so much worry on me, but when the first day of university came, and I met my course mates, my fear of being alone quickly subsided! Ideally after I graduate, I’d love a job working alongside the youth offending team in neighbouring counties, applying my newly learned skills into a real-life environment! I’m excited to see where my degree can take me later in the future!
Hey! Our names are Faith and Anna, and we are ex NA students who are currently studying A-levels at High Pavement Sixth Form in Nottingham. We have been asked to talk about our experience so far and what we are thinking about the college. I am studying media, psychology and sociology, and Anna is studying biology, art and chemistry – there’s no way you’d get me doing anything science-wise! I’m finding chemistry and biology alright – its very different from GCSE and obviously very tough, but I’m finding it okay. You have a lot more independence in class, revising what you need to and doing the work at your own pace. I’m really enjoying art, it gives a nice break from the sciences, although it is a lot of work, I feel its enjoyable, and again, very independent. Faiths subjects are very different, but still as exciting, they are new and different subjects to what she’s studied before. I’m really enjoying media and sociology – they are so interesting to study and don’t feel like academic topics which I love. They also link so well to psychology. Although psychology is classed a ‘science’, it is a social science, which means it then becomes relevant to real life events.
We decided on Nottingham college because we fancied a change, wanted some more independence and they have a slush puppy machine in the canteen. The only downside is the trek here. If you don’t mind the bus or train, there’s no problem. The college offers help to those who need financial support with travel, so if that’s a concern then the college would be more than happy to help. The campus is around a 20-minute walk from the bus and train station – 10 minutes if you get the tram in between! It feels different being around different types of people, and adults who have gone back to study courses. But we like how we are treated the same as the adults – being on first name basis with the teachers, dressing how we like and being trusted to leave the campus in a free period.
We aren’t sure on our future aspirations; however, the college has constant careers appointments available to book, and many opportunity ideas posted on campus. We have chosen subjects we enjoy and hope to use them somehow within a future career. We’ve been asked to give some words of aspirations to current students, and ill be honest, you probably shouldn’t listen to us, we aren’t that helpful. But I would say to the year 11s, start revising now, don’t leave it till the last minute. You’ll have a breakdown if you’re anything like us. Also, do what you enjoy, don’t worry about other people’s opinions or successes. If you do something you enjoy, you’ll be happy, and much more likely to succeed.
In keeping with the theme of Halloween, did you know that you can now study for a Masters Degree in Magic & Occult Science!!? This is the first course of this kind in the UK, delivered by the University of Exeter!
The course includes some unique and interesting modules, such as:
- Magic tradition
- The Western Dragon in Lore, Literature and Art
- The Legend of King Arthur
The gain entry onto this Masters course, you will need to have received a 2:1 honours degree at university in Social Science or Humanities.
Newark Academy
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