Staffordshire special school Queen’s Croft is top of the class after receiving careers award 

A STAFFORDSHIRE special school has been commended for helping its pupils plan for their future by a national organisation.

Queen’s Croft High School, in Lichfield, is a secondary special school for pupils aged 11-19 with moderate learning difficulties. It has achieved The Quality in Careers Standard award for its careers education, information, advice and guidance provision and head teacher Clive Lawrence says that the award reaffirms the school’s aim of making sure students are ready for future employment.

He said: “Our school mission and vision is about inspiring GREATness. The R in GREAT is around readiness and a key component to our curriculum is ensuring that our students are ready for future employment.

“Our recent careers mark award reaffirms the broad and rich offer around supporting the future aspirations and careers of our pupils.”

The school, which has more than 200 pupils on roll and covers Lichfield, Rugeley, Tamworth, Cannock, Stafford, Walsall and Birmingham, were assessed as “making good progress towards meeting all the accreditation criteria incorporating the Gatsby Benchmarks”. The Gatsby Benchmarks – of which there are eight – are a framework that schools and colleges can use to develop a good careers programme.  

Jane Bradby, assistant head for personal development, and work experience leader Callum Huckfield lead on careers at Queen’s Croft.

They are proud of the achievements of their pupils who have additional physical, sensory and autistic condition.

Eighteen-year-old Jack and class-mate Leo have both recently completed their Level One Health & Safety in Construction awards, whilst sixteen-year-old Molly harbours ambitions of working on a cruise ship as an entertainer.

Mr Huckfield said: “We are extremely proud of our pupils, who are ambitious and hard-working. Jack and Leo have worked hard to achieve their ‘green card’ which means that they can safely go on any construction site in the UK.”

Mr Lawrence added: “I am grateful to our careers and work experience leaders for their work behind the scenes in ensuring that our students have a breadth of work-related opportunities.”