North Ridge High School is an 11-19 special school in North Manchester, with 200 students across two sites. Career Connect adviser Steve Leach has been working with the school since 2019.
North Ridge High School is an 11-19 special school in North Manchester, with 200 students across two sites.
Career Connect adviser Steve Leach has been working with North Ridge High School since 2019.
“Each of our students is unique, and there is not just one way of working with anybody.
“For most of our students, support is more about providing exposure to provision and employers, and liaising with families, some of whom can face lots of challenges. This includes practical support with applications.
“We provide a wraparound family service, placing the needs and goals of the young person above everything else. It’s part of our ethos. It’s good to work with Steve knowing that he feels the same.
“Steve and I have built useful resources for families and staff, including a PowerPoint with information on local provision.
“Our family information days have been one of our success stories. In line with preparing our students for adulthood, we bring employers, training and education provision together with health, wellbeing, and others to support young people in every aspect. Our first event attracted 20 families, and we now welcome at least 50.
“Making the transition to a new setting – whether in year 11 or Year 14 – can cause a lot of anxiety for students and their families.
Elaine Redpath,
Assistant Headteacher and Careers Lead, North Ridge School.
Steve is excellent at being a calming presence and engaging them with the process of change.
“We can also face challenges in that the provision that a young person or their family wants or needs doesn’t always exist, may not be available, or is not the right fit. The young person may need to take a different route to achieve their goal. Steve is very good in preparing young people for this and helping them to understand that ‘this is your starting point – it’s not your end point’.
“Steve is also persistent in helping our students find post-16 and post-19 places. We are proud to achieve a near 100% participation rate every year.
“Steve works with our Enterprise Adviser to seek out employer activities that bring careers to life – such as bringing in giant metal casing frames for an electrical wiring activity. Our students felt a real sense of achievement.
“Steve has led on putting together a clear careers framework for years 7-9, and careers curriculum mapped against the CDI framework. He played a big role in our achieving the Quality in Careers Standard..
“We were proud to achieve ‘Outstanding’ in our last Ofsted inspection – where they spent a lot of time looking at careers provision.
“Next, we want to promote careers conversations across the whole school – from teachers, to site staff, to governors. Steve will play a key role in helping drive this – he’s an essential part of our team.”
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