The Careers team helps to prepare your daughter for the
opportunities and responsibilities of adult life by offering them a
varied and challenging programme throughout their education. We aim
to encourage their self-development, facilitate career exploration
and so enable them to make the choices that will lead to fulfilling
working lives in the future.
The Team:
Mrs Beth Lowe, BA Manchester: Head of Department
Mrs Karen Bell: Careers Assistant
Mrs Chris Sutcliffe: Careers Assistant.
Our Resources
The Careers room, which is staffed by our two full-time careers
assistants, Mrs Bell and Mrs Sutcliffe, and shared with the Boys'
Division, contains an excellent bank of resources which can be
accessed by your daughter throughout the day. Here she can consult
prospectuses and a wide range of current publications as well as
making use of DVDs, the Internet and software packages such as
Kudos. Advice is available on numerous issues from education,
training and employment, to scholarships, sponsorships and loans.We
also have a partnership agreement with Connexions, the national
careers service, and belong to the Independent Schools Careers
Organisation.
An Overview of our Programme
Year 7 Work Sampling: all girls spend a day in
the work place of a family member or friend so that they can begin
to become aware of the demands of different kinds of work.
This is what some of our Year 7 girls said about the experience:
"I learnt that, wherever you go to work you will always have a lot
of responsibilities but I had a great time"; "I learnt that the
working day is not just about physical work, but also about people
and working relationships"; "I was having so much fun I didn"t want
to go home!"
Year 8 Careers Day: in the post exam period,
Year 8 spend a whole day looking at four different career areas. A
short talk by a visiting speaker is then followed by a challenging
activity drawing on the skills needed for a particular type of
work. This year we were visited by a Clothing Designer, an
Astrophysicist who encouraged the girls to invent their own
telescope, two Pharmacists and three Upper Sixth leavers who helped
the Year 8s research five more career areas.
Here are some of the girls' reactions to the sessions. On
Clothing Design: "I liked using the different materials and learned
that designing can be stressful". Another girl added, "Today has
been unique - amazing fun - but I still don't know what I want to
do!"
Year 9: all girls use the Kudos programme to
encourage them to consider how their interests and skills might
lead them into a particular type of work.
Year 10 Challenge Day: the whole year is taken
off timetable for a day of activities designed to challenge their
skills and talents whilst testing their ability to work as a team.
Although the content of the day is usually a well-guarded secret,
we can reveal that in the past we have put Year 10 through
dramatic, engineering, physical and creative challenges in a
variety of formats; this year we brought "Young Enterprise" into
school to run a business masterclass.
Year 11 Careers Interview: your daughter will
have a one-to-one interview in the Careers Room with a member of
the careers team who will discuss her CV and possible choices at 16
and 18. Our approach is holistic; we examine both academic and
extra-curricular interests whilst stressing the importance of work
experience. Our aim is to provide the kind of support that will
encourage her to make an independent and well-informed decision
about her future.
Work Experience: all girls in Years 10 and 11
are given the opportunity to arrange a work experience placement
through the careers department to be carried out after GCSE exams
or in the school holidays.
Sixth Form
The girls in the Sixth Form enjoy an extensive programme
designed to help them:
- Develop a wide range of transferable skills in readiness for
the world of work
- Build a better awareness of the business world
- Develop interview skills
- Make sensible choices about Higher Education and /or a
career
- Prepare a strong application for Higher Education
The programme is delivered by outside speakers from the world of
work and Higher Education as well as our own experienced teaching
staff.
Biennial Careers Convention: all girls from
Year 9 upwards are invited to attend this event which is held
jointly with the Boys' Division in the Autumn Term.
Where do students go after Bolton School? Learn
more about where students go when they leave the Girls' Division in
our Destination
of Leavers section.