At Dene Magna, we put a high value on work experience for our Year 10 and 12 students. By spending time within a career they are interested in, students not only see the purpose of their learning, but also the need for life skills such as confidence, independence and initiative.  It helps them to rule in or, just as importantly, out whether this is a career path they wish to pursue. By investing time in finding the right placement, students better understand the realities of their ideal career and are able to make better choices after their GCSEs or A-Levels.

The Benefits of Work Experience

• Gain insight into the world of work
• Develops your skills
• You learn more than in the classroom
• It adds to your CV
• Helps give you confidence
• Helps you in interviews
• You can make useful contacts to help you get a future job
• Helps you to work out what you like and don’t like
• It gives you exposure to management
• Gives you practical knowledge
• Increases your motivation to do well
• It puts school/college into perspective

All Year 10 and 12 students are expected to arrange a week of work experience linked to their career aspirations. In order to increase the quality and flexibility of the placement, instead of just one fixed set of dates, students are able to take a week out of lessons during any term of the year.  Students MUST check with their teachers that they aren't missing anything important during their chosen week. They need to arrange to catch up on any school work if they choose to take time out of term. This has helped the majority of students to find an optimum and interesting placement. They can also use their holidays if they want more than one placement to boost their future CV and applications. Please try to avoid a placement with immediate family if possible as this limits the benefits of work experience.

Please see guide below:

All students need to use the Unifrog Work Placement Tool to arrange their work experience. Please see video below explaining how this process works:

To develop those interpersonal skills, students arrange their own placement (supported by parents/carers) bearing in mind practical considerations like transportation. Once a student has been offered a place in principle, they MUST log in to Unifrog and follow the whole process so that we can check insurance and safety measures. The online form must be submitted at least 2 weeks prior to the placement, so we can check the safety of the placement and plan a staff visit or phone call to check on progress.

If students do not wish to take time out of lessons, they will need to arrange for their placement to be completed in the July reserved week also called Timetable Suspension Week (This is a week when no lessons are timetabled and other enrichment activities are on offer for students), in a yellow week or during the holidays.

If an in person work placement is proving difficult to find there are Virtual Work Experience opportunities available. Some of those can be costly but Forage and Springpod, for example, offer free virtual work experience: 

Year 10 Students Only:

If a student hasn't been able to arrange a placement then for three full days during Timetable Suspension week they will undertake Careers Learning Activities.

For those that have already been on their placement before Timetable Suspension week a set of challenges will be set for them to complete at home during this week, called the 10 to 11 Challenge. This is to help students prepare and transition into Year 11 providing them with an incentive to become more independent. We appreciate that all parenting styles are different and for some these challenges will be easy but for others they will prove to be a big challenge. 

For more information on work experience please see links below and/or contact Jo Rich: careers@denemagna.org.uk