Careers guidance and support is an integral part of the curriculum at Dysart for pupils in Year 8 and above. We work closely with families and other outside agencies to ensure that careers, further education, and future life choices are well-matched to the needs of the individual pupil and are both aspirational and relevant. As far as possible, we align this work with the outcomes in each pupil’s Education and Health Care Plans. ‘Career’ is defined as a purposeful destination on leaving school or college and does not necessarily mean paid employment
Dani Toogood (Assistant Principal) has overall responsibility for the careers programme at Dysart and she can be contacted by the school office by email: dysart-office@dysartschool.org or telephone: 020 8412 2600
Students participate in a bespoke package of Careers support that is carefully tailored to their individual needs and is consistent with the eight Gatsby benchmarks:
- 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 with further and higher education
- Personal guidance
Dysart supports careers development through high quality, personalised, work experience opportunities. The school aims for all students in KS4 and KS5 to have at least one experience of a workplace per academic year. These opportunities can be both within the school community or the wider local community, depending on what would be the most beneficial to each students.
The school enjoys high quality relationships with a number of local businesses who provide opportunities for students to work in ‘real’ settings outside of school. Students are typically supported by school staff during work experience placements but the nature and level of support offered differs based on the needs of each individual pupil.
The recent Co-Vid 19 pandemic has caused significant disruption to our ability to provide internal and external work experience opportunities but we were able to maintain some forms of internal work experience for students throughout, and have now begun to start up external work experience opportunities again.
Pupils on all pathways work towards Ascentis Accreditations in areas that are of relevance to their future aspirations and interests. All of these courses offered also cover modules that have work related learning elements. To see the range of courses offered please see the ‘Courses Offered’ page on our website by clicking the link below:
Students are encouraged to express a preference in terms of their destinations after leaving Dysart through their EHCP and the review process. The effectiveness of this process is measured by retrospective feedback from families: feedback obtained in April 2018 and in June 2021 from families who had left the school in the previous three years is consistently positive. We work closely with Further Education Providers and ensure that appropriate transitions are in place to support pupil’s transitioning on from Dysart.
In addition to the above, Dysart’s careers programme includes extensive travel training opportunities for each student to ensure they can travel safely with as much independence as possible. Throughout the week students are able to use public transport with greater confidence and independence as part of regular educational visits into the local community and beyond.
Dysart School Provider Access Policy
