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Leading a fully integrated approach to delivering CEIAG

Case study

The inclusive vision and ethos of careers education, information, advice and guidance (CEIAG) at Norbury Manor is driven by its specialisms in business and enterprise and applied learning. Partnerships with businesses are given central importance by the governing body, senior leaders and other staff in developing these specialisms and extending CEIAG provision.

Key learning

  • Leadership is distributed across all staff, allowing increased ownership of CEIAG, not only by the 14-19 development officer who leads CEIAG but among curriculum and pastoral leaders.
  • Enterprise and CEIAG are fundamental to curriculum design and innovation.
  • Extensive and enriched learning opportunities are provided for both staff and students.

Background

Norbury Manor Business and Enterprise College is a large, all-girls secondary school in Croydon where its approximately 1,100 students come from a diverse range of socioeconomic and ethnic backgrounds. Both the number of students who speak English as an additional language and those eligible for free school meals are above national averages. Norbury’s specialisms in business and enterprise, applied learning and as a training school play an important role in enhancing CEIAG provision.

Key challenges

Day-to-day management

Conflicting demands between the day-to-day management of the college and the CEIAG offer proved challenging.

Succession planning and sustainability

Resourcing for CEIAG in terms of personnel, finances and time is significant. This is a result of the inclusive ethos and culture of the college where it is believed that all students are entitled to access outstanding provision.

Solutions

As one member of staff said, the focus is not about barriers at Norbury but about "solutions" and how they "find ways round problems".

Leadership structures and approaches

The ethos of distributed leadership among staff and students is seen by the headteacher as one of the significant factors in enabling CEIAG to flourish.

CEIAG is led and managed by the 14-19 development officer. Her non-teaching status provides benefits such as ensuring maximum flexibility when:

  • developing relations with partners
  • conducting one-to-one student interviews
  • liaising with non-teaching heads of year regarding provision

The development officer is line managed by the deputy with responsibility for specialisms and curriculum development. This enables communication between them and the senior leadership team (SLT) to be quick and efficient. The development officer is afforded significant autonomy in developing provision using the strong links with curriculum leaders and heads of year to enhance this and ensure a fully integrated approach. The development officer and PSHCE leader plan the PSHCE and CEIAG curriculum together.

The governing body plays a significant role in developing partnership links with the local community due to the business acumen and networks of its members.

As a training school, staff are engaged with a wide variety of professional development activities focused on CEIAG.

Delivery model

Opportunities for CEIAG activities are integrated within each curriculum area and Key Stage. In addition it offers collapsed timetable days entitled ‘deep learning days’; these have included visits to industry and workshop activities led by business professionals alongside teachers.

Careers units are taught by heads of year within the personal social health and citizenship education (PSHCE) programme.

Day-to-day management

To address conflicting demands in the day-to-day management of the college and the CEIAG offer, the SLT continues to support the implementation of deep learning days. As these are calendared a year in advance, middle leaders are given plenty of notice and time to plan what they will offer at this time. It also enables the development officer to secure commitment from universities, businesses and local community groups to provide presenters or workshop facilitators on these days.

Succession planning and sustainability

The college is involved in succession planning. The SLT recognises that the development officer has a pivotal role in implementing CEIAG. However, due to the way the CEIAG programme has been set up as part of a wider team which develops the applied learning specialism, the support structure for any new appointment is already in place. The college is proactive in looking for candidates who have other skills to offer or have experienced workplaces other than schools. For instance, one of the learning mentors used to work for Connexions in Croydon and therefore has a wealth of expertise.

In response to the current economic situation and potential future financial constraints within the education sector, Norbury is confident that it can continue to commit resources to CEIAG. This is a consequence of its strong links with businesses and the local community in which services provided by these groups are free. Also, there is a strong commitment from the headteacher and the governing body that CEIAG and the business and enterprise and applied learning specialisms will continue to be a priority.

Evaluation of impact

The college measures the impact of CEIAG through its monitoring and evaluation systems. Examples include:

  • parent and student questionnaires used to identify views about provision and shape future developments
  • learning walks and lesson observations undertaken by the development officer, SLT and middle leaders and used to capture the impact of CEIAG in all subject areas

Next steps

The CEIAG improvement strategy is included in the college development plan so that it is monitored by the SLT.

Information from all its monitoring activities feeds into the self-evaluation process and is used by all staff to review current provision against Norbury Manor’s development plan and priorities.

Furthermore, the college welcomes external agencies and has used these to evaluate the impact of provision, for example the process involved in its successful application for the Investors in Careers award.

Further information

Report written by Heidi Swidenbank, National College research associate and deputy headteacher, Parliament Hill School, London