Good careers guidance motivates young people by giving them a clearer idea of the routes into jobs and careers that they will find engaging and rewarding.
At Whickham School we recognise that effective career guidance raises aspirations, improves motivation and overcomes barriers to success. The careers programme helps pupils identify and build experiences, skills and behaviours essential for a successful working future. We provide pupils access to differentiated, impartial and independent information and guidance about the range of training options available post 14, post 16 and post 18, as well as insights into up to date labour market information and pathways to specific careers. By ensuring pupils have relevant, credible and up to date information we can effectively support them with decisions at all crucial stages.
Our programme enables our pupils to develop key employability and enterprise skills which are highly valued by employers, universities, colleges and apprenticeship providers. By providing our pupils with a broad and balanced curriculum coupled with relevant employability skills and knowledge that takes into consideration the NE labour market we can prepare pupils to be inspired, aspirational, productive, effective and valuable members of the workforce.
Meet the Team
2025/26 Careers Programme – Strategy and Plan
Our Careers Programme is updated annually. You can view a copy of the 2025/26 Careers Strategy and a copy of the 2025/26 Plan Summary. Please note, however, our programme is not static and we seek to confirm and add additional opportunities during the year.
Monitoring & Assessment
The careers programme is monitored internally as part of our review and reflection cycle. We measure the impact of our strategy through student, employer and parent feedback, and access this information in several ways by obtaining verbal and written or on-line feedback. We use this feedback to reflect, adapt and enhance the programme. We also track our student destinations (Post 16 and Post 18). We use the Careers and Enterprise Company’s Compass Tool to self-assess our strategy against the Gatsby benchmarks each term. These results are then shared with our Enterprise Advisors, North East Local Enterprise Partnership (NELEP) Careers Hub Co-ordinator, and are reviewed by the Governing Body. You can view a copy of the December 2025 Assessment.
Careers Policy & Contact Information
A copy of our Careers Policy and Provider Access Statement can be found on the Policies Page. The policy will be reviewed in July 2025.
The Careers Leader at Whickham School is Mrs Debbie Ross. She can be contacted on 0191 496 0026 Ext 252 or by e-mail at: dross@whickhamschool.org