
At the EYFS pupils are surrounded by fun opportunities to help with finding out what they enjoy, what they are good at and about the world that immediately surrounds them.
Through imaginative play, pupils develop their early personal and social skills and develop the emotional regulation. Other learning is based on individual learning goals and centres on developing cognition and interaction and physical development.
Pupils at this stage are beginning, with the help of the adults that support them, to notice the different roles that adults undertake and are beginning to associate for example, the kitchen staff with lunch.
Alongside their personal learning goals, pupils continue to develop their personal, social and emotional skills in this child-led, sensory based pathway.
Pupils are supported to develop skills such as perseverance and encouraged to try new things. In addition, a growing focus on the skills they will need to become as independent as possible sees pupils develop their life-skills as well as learning how to stay safe and becoming more confident to travel in different ways over different distances.
Pupils will meet a wider range of adults from across the school community and beyond and begin to take note of the roles they perform. With support they will begin to consider which roles they think they might enjoy and what skills they would need to undertake them.
Pupils will also begin to consider the roles of other adults they know as well as characters they meet in the stories they share.

In these pathways, pupils will be working on their Preparation for Adulthood targets and developing their independence. They will be provided with learning experiences that will develop their independence in travel, shopping, dressing and cooking.
Pupils go out into the local community to buy items from shops, eat food in restaurants and cafés and visit local landmarks. During these experiences, pupils develop their understanding of how to dress appropriately for different events and weather, how to stay safe near roads, how to cross the roads safely, how to find help if they need it, how to order food and spend money in a shop. Pupils learn how to use electrical appliances safely, how to prepare and cook food. Other life skills such as cleaning learning spaces, tidying, hoovering, mopping, making a snack and a hot drink are all built into their daily timetable.
Pupils develop a better idea of the different roles being performed in school and its wider communities and begin to consider these roles in terms of the skills and qualities required to perform them, as well as how these roles include elements that the individual either enjoys or dislikes. Pupils gain insights into an ever-wider range of roles through the visitors who are invited into school to talk to them.
Across the curriculum, pupils continue to develop the skills and qualities that will help them succeed into adulthood, such as speaking and listening skills, perseverance and willingness to try new things, learning what to do when what to do isn’t obvious and
Some pupils will begin to have opportunities of work experience in school in roles which have a positive impact on the wider school community and adopt other roles which help their classes. These roles include:
Pupils take responsibility for the school grounds and actively work to improve them. Developing their understanding of “Green Careers” pupils take part in recycling challenges and use their knowledge to raise money for the Green Group to invest.
Pupils take part in these “Green” activities, as well as wide ranging “Forest School” work, both of which feed into a growing understanding of concepts such as Health and Safety as well as the range of careers available beyond the more traditional.
Pupils in years 10 and 11 have repeated opportunities to learn about the options that are available for them to take when their time at Watermill comes to an end and will visit all post 16 options numerous times, before being supported to make their choice.
Our Careers Lead, Stacey Amison, can be contacted by email at: stacey.amison@watermill.orchardct.org.uk or via the main school telephone 01782 883737
we largely measure the success of our careers programme against our destination data (the number of pupils who leave at end of year 11, and move on to appropriate post 16 placements).
Our careers programme gets reviewed yearly. date of next review is September 2026.