Choosing the right pathway after leaving school is a significant milestone for every young person. At The Holden School, we are committed to raising aspirations and supporting our students to move confidently into the next stage of their lives.
All students are entitled to high-quality, age-appropriate careers education and guidance, including regular access to an external and impartial careers adviser. Our careers programme is aligned with the Gatsby Benchmarks for Good Career Guidance, ensuring a structured, progressive and measurable approach to careers education across the school. This guidance is carefully tailored to reflect each student’s strengths, interests and needs, ensuring that all pathways are explored with ambition and realism.
Our careers programme is embedded across the curriculum and focuses on developing a broad range of transferable skills that prepare students for an ever-changing world of work. Through this approach, we ensure students benefit from clear careers information, meaningful employer encounters and experiences of further education, in line with the Gatsby Benchmarks. We place a strong emphasis on independence, self-advocacy and resilience, while ensuring our approach remains inclusive and responsive to individual needs.
Students benefit from a wide range of personal development opportunities, including encounters with employers, visits to further education providers and meaningful work-related learning experiences, supporting Gatsby Benchmarks relating to employer engagement, workplace experiences and encounters with further and higher education. These are complemented by learning beyond the classroom, with opportunities rooted in our local community to help students understand real-world contexts and expectations.
Alongside our formal careers provision, we actively promote independent living skills through curriculum learning, enrichment activities and personalised targets set through review meetings and transition planning. Our preparation for adulthood framework reflects four key outcomes: employment, community inclusion, independent living and health. These outcomes are designed to be aspirational, achievable and personalised, ensuring every student is supported to move towards a fulfilling and purposeful future.
Our Careers Lead is Kate Coleclough – Assistant Headteacher- Personal Development
If you have any questions about student careers, higher education, work experience, or if you would like more information about our careers programme, please contact kate.Coleclough@theholdenschool.co.uk (This address is not for school job applications).
Career policies and attachments
Find out more about the additional support you can access at the Holden School in careers and employability here
View our Careers and Employability Skills Policy here
View our Provider Access Policy here
View our Career Programme Summary here
Parents below are some helpful links –
- Guide to careers
- Helping your child know what’s next
- The Future of Work Guide
- Guide to Green Careers
Students below are some helpful links –