Our Lady's Catholic High School
To view the 2026-2027 Transition Booklet, please click here.
Moving from primary school to high school can be a big step for children and their families, so our transition process is designed to be supportive, thorough, and reassuring.
We work closely with our feeder primary schools to help pupils feel familiar and confident before they start with us. This includes opportunities to get to know the school community, meet staff and current pupils, and take part in a range of activities that help them feel part of school life early on.
We also aim to build strong links with our partner primary schools through ongoing collaboration, including shared learning experiences and regular contact that helps ensure a smooth and positive transition for every child.
To view Term Dates, please click here.
The transition from KS3 to KS4 is an important one as this is the first real opportunity our pupils have to select subjects that they are both more interested in and that provide a platform to access further study or vocational post-16 opportunities.
Ultimately we want our pupils to study subjects that they are both passionate about and propel them on an aspirational journey towards their chosen career.
Therefore, our options process is centred around three core principals; high quality CAIG (Careers Advice, Information and Guidance), an abundance of choice and no restrictions in terms of selection.
CAIG commences in Year 7 where, ahead of making these important decisions, our pupils are exposed to an abundance of careers related material and experiences that are designed to agitate their curiosity and ambition in careers and reverse engineer a pathway toward it. Such examples include:
Our Year 9 Futures Day and KS4 Information evening are further opportunities for our pupils and their families to receive valuable information, but more importantly to learn about their subjects, research learning and career pathways, bury down into the Labour Market Information, discover demandable skills and learn from employers and employees.
Compulsory KS4 subjects:
- Religious Education
- English language
- English Literature
- Mathematics
- Science (minimum of ELC or Combined Science)
Optional KS4 subjects:
- Art
- Business Studies
- BTEC Health & Social Care
- Computer Science
- ICT
- Construction
- Hair and Beauty
- Life Skills
- Motor Vehicle Engineering
- Drama
- D&T Graphics
- D&T Resistant Materials
- D&T Textiles
- Food and Nutrition
- French
- Spanish
- Geography
- History
- Sociology
- Sports Studies
- Music
- GCSE PE
- Separate Sciences (Biology, Chemistry and Physics)
- Work Skills
There is a wealth of options available for our pupils once they leave our school and we work hard to ensure that each discovers the right pathway, whether that be full-time education an apprenticeship or traineeship, or employment.
Each pupil will have their own unique aspirations and we aim to support and grow those in addition to exposing our pupils to all of the options available to them so that they can make an informed decision about their future.
Careers education is embraced and valued by all of our staff. We have a stable careers programme that addresses the needs of each pupil.
We link curriculum learning to careers, offer numerous encounters with employers, employees and the workplace Our pupils our exposed to all further andhigher education pathways and receive high quality personal guidance.
You can read about numerous specific examples on our Careers page.
