Woodley School and College

Our school delivers a carefully planned, whole school careers programme with strong leadership commitment. Updated careers guidance (2025) places careers “at the heart of your institution,” with clear strategic oversight and defined roles for senior leaders and Careers Leaders—an approach we fully embody.
Our programme is reviewed annually and shared with students, families, staff and community partners to ensure transparency and impact.

We engage fully with our Local Authority partners to ensure we have up-to-date LMI which is then used to tailor our visits and transitions for our pupils to ensure that our careers programme is improving their quality of life into the future. All our pupils have interest assessments updated termly by their class teams to ensure that opportunities match their interests and motivations.

At Woodley we gain a holistic view of our pupils ensuring that our curriculum, and therefore our careers provision, is personalised to individual pupils. We aim to raise pupils’ ambitions by giving them real-world experiences outside of the classroom whilst ensuring we respond appropriately to individual needs.
We use tools such as the SEND Gatsby Benchmark Toolkit to ensure our provision is appropriate, accessible and structured for our pupils.

Collecting pupils’ feedback following careers activities allows us to ensure provision remains appropriate and allows for development of our programme, leading to increased engagement and progression for each pupil.

Teachers connect subjects to real world applications, helping students understand how their learning relates to future work, independence and personal development. Curriculum links are adapted to suit different communication styles, sensory needs and learning profiles.

We actively and carefully plan for meaningful encounters with employers across school and college. Our “Woodley What’s Next” careers week includes employers visiting Woodley to share experiences as well as pupils accessing the local community to understand different workplace environments.

Employers are briefed prior to any visits to ensure inclusive communication and activities accessible for all.

Across school and college we encourage pupils to access work placements which encompass a range of roles and responsibilities both within our school environment and in the local community. This includes applying for and interviewing for placements to meet pupils’ individual needs and interests.

Our college satellite provision, Blossom, provides pupils with real-world experience of running a shop in a town centre. Everything from making stock, marketing and budgeting to running the shop and serving customers is covered. Blossom also facilitate ‘pop-up’ shops in the local community such as at the local hospital and at school events.

At Woodley school and college we value our close links to further and higher education providers. Pupils have opportunities to visit our local college, Kirklees College, to see the wide range of courses available and to engage in transition visits where required. Pupils also visit our local university, Huddersfield University, to meet students, engage in planned activities and attend events held in the University campus.

Additionally, we are continuing to expand our access to specialist post-16 and post-19 providers, including social care provisions, ensuring pupils and families have relevant and up-to-date knowledge about a range of local provision.

All pupils receive impartial, personalised guidance from a trained, external careers professional, starting in Y9. Susan Stewart from C&K Careers tailors her sessions to meet individual communication preferences and works with pupils and their families throughout the year, offering advice and support to enable pupils to reach positive destinations after leaving Woodley. Susan also supports our “Woodley What’s Next?” careers week with small group sessions and provides staff training on her role and responsibilities as required.