Careers Guidance
Welcome to Cliff Park Ormiston Academy’s Careers Hub
At Cliff Park Ormiston Academy, we are passionate about ensuring we provide our students with as much careers guidance as possible to enable them to make excellent decisions for bright futures.
Throughout their time at Cliff Park Ormiston Academy, students will have the opportunity to visit post-16 training providers, colleges and universities. They will also have experiences of different industry sectors through drop-down days, trips and Insight into Industry talks.
Below you will find some activities that have been tailored for specific year groups. These activities are designed to get students thinking about their career pathway as they reflect upon their own skills.
We have successfully achieved the ‘LifeSkills Award‘ and the ‘Quality in Careers Standard’.
Our Academy’s career leader is Mr S Sorrento and be contacted by email – ssorrento@cliffparkoa.co.uk
Please click for our Provider Access Policy Statement (March 2024)
Please click for our Careers Strategy (2024-25) for this academic year.
Please click for our Careers Policy (September 2024)
Our current destinations data can be found here.
Our Academy provides impartial careers advice and guidance. Please contact the school with any queries on 01493661504.
In Form Time and through PSHE lessons, students complete a range of careers-focused learning activities throughout Years 7-11 to help them to make informed careers choices.
As part of Ormiston Academies’ Maritime Futures, Cliff Park Ormiston Academy has developed a Key Stage Three ‘Maritime Curriculum’ across a number of subjects. ‘Maritime Futures’ is an integrated curriculum approach at Key Stage Three pioneered by Cowes Enterprise College on the Isle of Wight. In discrete curriculum subjects, national curriculum content is taught through a maritime lens, using the wealth of exciting learning opportunities the maritime sector presents.
More information about how this model is being used at Cliff Park Ormiston Academy can be found here.
Careers Fairs, Parents’ Information Evenings and student visits to our local colleges and universities ensure students are fully informed about their future pathways.
Year 8 Work Shadowing and Year 10 Work Experience give students the opportunity to sample life within a professional, working environment, whilst our work with outside providers develops students’ learning skills and sharpens their team-work.
Cliff Park Ormiston Academy is also working in partnership with the county Enterprise Coordinator (North Norfolk, South Norfolk & Gt Yarmouth) to lead on additional CEIAG opportunities throughout the year, as well as careers workshops for Years 9-11.
In addition to this, Cliff Park Ormiston Academy has access to Unifrog, a program that enables students to explore their career pathways, develop their own CV and research local post-16 courses and jobs.
Within ‘Character and Culture’ lessons and throughout our curriculum, we are encouraging students to develop their employability skills by highlighting when the following are required to complete a task:
For more information, download our Character and Culture Mapping document
To see how each of our subjects explore employability skills and make links with future careers, see our Gatsby Benchmark 4 (Curriculum Careers Links) document.
Year 8 students take part in a ‘Work Shadowing’ day. This day is an opportunity for students to gain an experience of the workplace by shadowing an employee.
Students can shadow family members in their workplace or can look to organise a one-day placement with an employer of their choice. Students complete activities after this experience as part of their Form Time programme in order to reflect upon their placement and to think about their future pathways.
Updated forms will be made available shortly:
We always like to hear how our past students are getting on and would love to see them back at Cliff Park, delivering talks and sharing their experiences with our current students.
The following webpages provide information and activities on a huge range of career-related topics.
Careers in engineering – your complete guide (mailchi.mp)
Explore Filmmaking – Online Filmmaking Course – FutureLearn
https://www.icanbea.org.uk/app/game/interests/
Career Planning Resources for Schools and Colleges | University of London
Careers in rail – your complete guide (mailchi.mp)
Careers At Sea – Start Your Career in the Merchant Navy. Find out More & Apply Now! Work on Ships.
PowerPoint Presentation (futurefirst.org.uk)
Subscribe for Careermag – Careermap
The Future Skills Questionnaire (FSQ) is a set of questions that have been specifically designed for young people in schools and colleges to help them to think about their skills, strengths and what they might like to do in the future.
FSQ is a key feature of our school’s careers programme. We will analyse learner responses to help evaluate our careers provision, plan future careers activities and also identify learners who may need additional support.
The questionnaire takes approximately 15 minutes to complete, there are up to three sections of the questionnaire that cover the following areas:
- Careers knowledge and skills
- Essential skills for life and work
- Career Planning
Students will complete the questionnaire during National Careers Week (3rd – 8th March 2025). More information can be found below.
