Cranleigh Abu Dhabi Careers and Futures Curriculum ensures holistically educated, highly skilled individuals who are ready for the world.
An exciting evolution has been taking place recently at Cranleigh Abu Dhabi. The school has integrated its Careers and Futures Curriculum into its formal curriculum offering.
The Careers and Futures Curriculum, which will be implemented in Year 9 this year, has been shaped around the Gatsby Benchmarks, thus giving students the opportunity to build on their future skills and provides them with the pieces of a puzzle necessary to successfully build the future they picture in their minds.
“We feel all the different activities that we have students engage in as the necessary pieces to achieving that picture they have in their mind,” says Elizabeth Kelleher, Assistant Head of Senior School and Careers Advisor at Cranleigh Abu Dhabi.
“We’ve built the programme whereby students are engaging in activities tailored towards their future aspirations without it being too explicit which keeps it enjoyable, meaningful and purposeful.”
Pieces of the puzzle
Cranleigh Abu Dhabi Careers and Futures Curriculum identifies the pieces of the puzzle that will make the programme engaging and purposeful for students in each specific Year group.
In Year 9, the programme – launching this year – introduces and explores the concept of the future and skills development in a fun and engaging way through activities, projects and competitions.
The programme also ensures that each Year group’s puzzle is diverse with each piece providing differing focuses, activities and objectives, thus making the offering fresh, relevant, purposeful and meaningful for the students in each particular Year group.
The programme is integrated into the school’s academic programme, whereby tutor time is dedicated to futures focused activities, an important aspect to the success of any careers curriculum.
Time is assigned to focus on the things like the GCSE options process so that students feel supported and are making decisions that align with their future aspirations.
Exploring the world
To both continue to meet the needs of the students and to keep the programme fresh and engaging for both students and teachers alike, the school’s Careers and Futures Curriculum is constantly being developed.
In the Senior School Years 9-11 students will be allotted time that is dedicated to skills development, critical thinking and futures. This gives space to allow students to explore the world and how they interact within it.
The Core Curriculum will give space to build in the pieces of the puzzle that the school has already identified, while also providing the students with an academic qualification.
By the end of Year 11 students will have gained an intermediate GCSE certificate in Philosophy and a GCSE qualification in the Higher Project Qualification, alongside the future learning required to be ready to make the most appropriate choices moving towards Sixth Form.
“Tailoring the programme gives the students the opportunity to explore the concept of the future, developing their 21st century skills and having fun while doing it,” says Elizabeth.
“For example, the Stockbrokers Club allows the students to role play trade on the stock market with hundreds of thousands of pretend dollars, which is a life experience.”
The focus of the Careers and Futures Curriculum is seeded early in Cranleigh Senior and steadily builds towards Year 13.
From interaction with Industry Experts to Academic CV building and professional work placements, individualised support and steering in career and university pathways provides access to admissions at the top universities around the world.
Looking to the future
The Sixth Form Core Curriculum will be an extension of this, whereby students in Year 12 and 13 will have five periods a week of dedicated curriculum time which is future-focused.
The modules integrated into the Core Curriculum give the students the tools they need not only to be ready to apply to university, but more importantly to be ready for life after Cranleigh Abu Dhabi.
Looking to the future, sustainable careers and lifelong employability will require much more than a deep understanding of a particular subject.
People will need to possess flexible, transferable talents such as complex problem-solving, resilience, leadership, tolerance and cross-cultural team working – all of which is offered throughout the programme.
Furthermore, the Careers and Futures Curriculum, which is being implemented in Year 9 this year, allows time for the kind of specialised support needed for the admissions processes, interview and personal statement mentorship required to gain entry into UAE, UK, US and Canadian universities.
For more information, visit cranleigh.ae
