BHCS Careers Vision Statement

The Brighton Hill Community School careers provision vision is to firmly embed a comprehensive careers programme within the curriculum, rooted in the Gatsby 8 Benchmarks.

The provision will recognise the needs of each individual student in our care, enriching and empowering them to access the next stage of their education, while being aspirational in these Post-16 choices, providing a pathway towards well informed career decisions which will change their lives for the better.

As a result, students will be happy, responsible citizens, prepared for the challenges they may face in life, who will continue to be aspirational in their life and career choices and so make positive contributions to society.

At BHCS we are committed to continued development of our Careers & Enterprise offer to students and in turn support the discussions parents, carers and staff will have with their children about the options available. We take pride in our commitment to reaching the Gatsby Career Benchmarks. All students and parents should have access to high-quality information about future study options and labour market opportunities. At BHCS our students work with a qualified careers adviser across Year 10 & Year 11 to make best use of available information.

We are developing a Careers and Enterprise programme at BHCS that will mean that by the age of 14, all students will have accessed and used information about career paths and the labour market to inform their own decisions on study options. Just click on the relevant zone button below to start exploring.

The 2023-24 academic year will see further developments in how we support our students, parents/carers and staff with good career education, information, advice & guidance (CEIAG). Arguably the most exciting of which is the school's commitment to achieving and maintaining the nationally recognised 'Quality in Careers Standard' which is fully aligned to the Gatsby Benchmarks for 'Good Career Guidance', complies with the Department for Education's statutory guidance and will provide independent recognition of the quality of our CEIAG delivered across the BHCS Careers Programme. If you have any questions about CEIAG please do not hesitate to contact:

The Post-16 destinations data shows where our students go after secondary school. The following graph and explanation help us understand how BHCS student destinations compare to other students in Hampshire.

The age to which all young people in England are required to continue in education or training is until at least their 18th Birthday.

This does not mean young people must stay in school. They will able to choose from:

• full-time education (eg at a school or college)
• an apprenticeship or traineeship
• part-time education or training combined with one of the following:
  • employment or self-employment for 20 hours or more a week
  • volunteering for 20 hours or more a week
• 0.4% moved to other situations these include young people who are re-engaging and working towards participation, on a temporary break, unable to engage due to personal reasons as well as those whose situation is unknown or have moved out of area.
• 0.8% moved to Non RPA compliant situations.

Compared to the whole Hampshire cohort where:

• 92.8%% of Yr11 2021 leavers moved to RPA situations
• 3.6% moved to other situations
• 3.6% move to non-RPA compliant situations.

For the last 5 years BHCS has tracked above the Hampshire average % of students moving to RPA situations. It is worth noting the Covid pandemic has resulted in a drop in students moving to RPA situations, the previous 3 years to 2024 were as follows:

• 2024 BHCS 98.8% Hampshire 92.8%
• 2023 BHCS 99% Hampshire 92.9%
• 2022 BHCS 97.1% Hampshire 93.5%
• 2021 BHCS 99.2% Hampshire 94.5%
• 2020 BHCS 95.9% Hampshire 94.3%
• 2019 BHCS 95% Hampshire 94.9%
• 2018 BHCS 95.5% Hampshire 93.9%

For the class of 2024 53.1% of our RPA students went onto a sixth form college/School (QMC being the most popular) compared to 50.1% in Hampshire and 44.1% went on to a FE College (BCOT being the most popular) compared to 43.7% in Hampshire.

To compare BHCS destinations data nationally you can use the Department for Education's Compare School Performance service and scrolling down to the 'Pupils staying in education or employment', where you will see BHCS (95%) out performs at both Local (92%) and National (91%) levels. It is worth noting there is a lag on National data compared to the local Hampshire data presented earlier on this page, where the year is reflective of the year the Year 11 cohort left BHCS in 2023.

For more detailed analysis you can download data via the same service here.