Work Experience 

Having the opportunity to spend time in a workplace is a valuable experience and all students in Year 10 go on a work experience placement for one week in the summer term. Students are encouraged to organise their own work experience placement. Often friends, family, neighbours or employers of parents/carers can be a great source of information. For those students who require further help, we maintain a database of employers who have been happy to take on our students in previous years.

It is advised that students seek aspirational work experience placements and start looking early as the popular placements fill up very quickly. It is also important to consider potential career routes for example, if students are considering medical school seek work experience in a medical setting e.g. care home, pharmacy; for veterinary routes possibly a boarding kennel might be an option if a veterinary placement can’t be found. Our students have secured a huge variety of work placements from education, IT, law, engineering, financial services, property, hair & beauty, uniformed services, environmental services, tourism, construction, medical, veterinary, equine and animal care to placements at Manchester Airport, Magistrates in London, BBC, publishing houses and even in Paris – the opportunities are endless!

The Priory School work experience programme is led by Mr N Bucknall Assistant Head (Student Welfare) and the Work Experience Administrator, Mrs H Harland, who both ensure that all placements meet the school’s requirements. All students on placement are covered by the employers’ insurances. The Priory School does not undertake separate checks on work placements and parents/carers are responsible for ensuring they provide placements with appropriate information about their child, such as medical needs. Forms are provided for parents/carers to complete with essential information. These are attached at the bottom of this page.

Some students may be required to participate in further work experience as part of their GCSE course (such as nursery placements for GCSE Child Development), which will typically be arranged through the school. In such cases, parental permission will be sought and risk assessments carried out by the school to ensure appropriate checks and procedures are in place when children are working away from school.

To read the full Careers and Work Experience Policy please click here