Careers education is a crucial part of a learner’s life journey. At Hexham Middle School, we seek to equip and prepare our pupils for their future.  Providing pupils, parents/carers and staff with relevant and current is key to ensure that all of our students can make fully informed decisions about their futures. We offer support to all of our students across all key stages so that they are prepared for adult life and the world of work.  

Careers education is delivered through wider-curriculum opportunities including the Personal Development tutorial programme, planned drop-down days and other bespoke events/activities. 

Hexham Middle School Careers Leader:   

Paul Freeman-Myers (Assistant Headteacher for Personal Development) 

Hexham Middle School Board of Trustees: The school’s CEIAG strategy and policy has been formally adopted by the Board of Trustees.  The school’s careers link trustee is Veryan Johnston. 

Click here for our Careers Programme Overview 2022-23 

Click here to view the Hexham Middle School Careers Policy (ratified by the board of trustees: date: To be reviewed by XXX 

Click here to view Hexham Middle School’s Provider Access Statement 

What are the Gatsby Benchmarks?

A report was published in 2014 by the Gatsby Charitable Foundation identifying eight benchmarks (known as the Gatsby Benchmarks), regarded to be key components for driving forward good careers and enterprise provision in schools.  

The Department for Education’s “Careers Strategy” was published 3 years after Professor Sir John Holman 2014 report ‘Good Career Guidance’. 

The eight Gatsby Benchmarks include: 

  1. A stable careers programme
  2. Learning from career and labour market information
  3. Addressing the needs of each pupil
  4. Linking curriculum learning to careers
  5. Encounters with employers and employees
  6. Experiences of workplaces
  7. Encounters with further and higher education
  8. Personal guidance 

Careers Strategy, 2017 

Gatsby Toolkit 

Careers Curriculum Vision

An ambitious and empowering careers provision which has success for every learner at its core, driven by the school ethos of Respect, Engage, Aspire and ‘an outstanding eagerness to promote good learning’. 

Our Aims and Priorities at Hexham Middle School for Careers Curriculum, Information, Advice and Guidance

Our school’s strategic career plan contains 5 driving priorities: 

  1. To ensure that pupils develop the skills and character traits required to help them engage in their future adult and working lives. 
  2. To help foster and sustain a culture of high aspiration. 
  3. To promote equitable opportunity, celebrate diversity and inclusivity, challenge cultural stereotypes and ensure pupils are afforded additional support and guidance  to reach their potential.
  4. To establish sustainable links between the school, local businesses and enterprises and further/higher education providers. 
  5. To assist pupils in developing skills and confidence to make well-informed decisions about future aspirations and to manage transition from middle to high school.

Hexham Middle School Alumni

We would like to share the life experiences of our past pupils as well as highlight the different career journeys they have had and pathways they now intend to pursue.  Most pupils progress onto Queen Elizabeth High School, so we naturally benefit from this larger alumni body.  We are however specifically interested in hearing from former HMS pupils.  

We understand that alumni stories and career profiles can be the catalyst for motivation and a source of inspiration. It has also been said that “variety is the spice of life.”  Life is more interesting when you try new things to vary your experiences.  

If you have previously attended Hexham Middle School and would like to share your career testimony, please contact Paul Freeman-Myers at admin@hexhammiddle.org.uk or 01434 610300