Careers Education, Information and Guidance Provision Statement 

Thornhill Academy believes that all young people need help to become, and remain, active citizens in our rapidly changing society.  

Careers in the 21st century are very different to those of the 20th century and our pupils need to be given the chance to develop the skills necessary for continued employment in this world of work in the future. Young people should be helped to develop a strong interest in, and aptitude for, work related activities and their own enterprise capability.  

Our Career Education, Information, Advice and Guidance program fulfils our statutory obligation to secure access to independent, impartial careers guidance for all pupils from Year 8 upwards on the full range of 16 to 18 options and beyond in education and training including apprenticeships.  

Our CEIAG program also covers careers education and guidance, financial capability and a basic understanding of economics, business and enterprise for all pupils from Year 7 onwards. In short, students cover:  

Year 7 – Introduction to Careers “Who Am I Now?”  

Year 8 – Learning about Careers “Who Could I Be?”  

Year 9 – Developing My Skills  

Year 10 – Becoming Employable  

Year 11 – Preparing for My Future  

The program is delivered and monitored by tutors and subject teachers in school, through work based activities, visits and external speakers and through projects and programmes offered by external agencies and organisations.  

The impact of this program is evaluation through future skills questionnaires, feedback from student council, experience tracking systems and destinations data. 

In order to help us deliver our CEIAG program we work closely with a number of organisations including Sunderland College, ESH, Foundation of Light, Sunderland Work Discovery, Nissan, University of Sunderland, Regional Careers Network, Northern Rights Pathfinder and NECOP. 

The provision is reviewed annually in advance of each academic year. Ongoing evaluations allows us to respond and react to emerging student needs

We strive to achieve the 8 Gatsby Benchmarks at Thornhill Academy: 

• A stable careers programme 

• Learning from career and labour market information 

• Addressing the needs of each pupil 

• Linking curriculum learning to careers 

• Encounters with employers and employees 

• Experiences of workplaces 

• Encounters for further and higher education 

• Personal guidance 

Our current progress towards meeting the benchmarks is shown in our termly Compass report

In Year 7, we introduce the idea of careers by thinking about the question “Who Am I Now?” 

In tutor groups, our Year 7s think about the skills and qualities they have and how they can improve these. We talk about the difference between a job and a career and how to find out about jobs that might suit us. 

In Guidance, Year 7 learn the basics of financial literacy and look at how we pay for things and how to keep our finances safe and within budget. 

In Year 8, we concentrate on the types of jobs that exist in a range of organisations and answer the question "Who could I be?.”

All pupils take part in the "Step into the NHS" competition during Guidance lessons, in order to learn about the vast range of jobs that exist within one organisation. 

In Year 9, pupils concentrate on developing their Enterprise Skills. 

Every Year 9 will take part in the National Enterprise Challenge where groups compete for the chance to present a business idea to a panel of nationally recognised business leaders. 

Pupils should be starting to think in more detail about their options Post-16 and should visit our Futures Fair or any websites listed to find more information. 

All Year 9 pupils will have the chance to participate in Work Discovery Week and in targeted speaker talks and visits to local businesses such as Tyne Tees and Software City. 

In Year 10, all of our pupils take part in the Building my Skills program run by the ESH group. The program aims to develop softer employability skills in the pupils and helps them to produce a portfolio of careers documents to use in the future. 

During the program, the pupils have five workshops delivered by local business organisations and then complete five checkpoint activities. 

Successful completion of this program can lead to mock interviews, work experience, and training opportunities. 

All Year 10 students take part in a work experience program in the summer term. They prepare for this in Guidance sessions using the NELEP's Work Experience Framework.   

Our Year 10 students also have the chance to take part in a range of programs such as: 

• Student Leadership 

• Girls Network 

• Inspires 

Year 11 is decision time for our pupils. During this year we support pupils in making a decision about their Post-16 options. 

All pupils will complete a careers interview with a CareerWave personal advisor and will receive an action plan. Students will be supported in creating their own CVs, preparing for applications and interviews.

They will all visit our careers convention to talk to colleges, sixth forms, apprenticeships, training providers, and local employers.