The Futures Department, a finalist in the Independent School of the Year Awards 2022 and 2023, plays an important part in preparing pupils for the world beyond Shrewsbury School.
The Department works as part of the whole school team, supported by the Salopian Club, to provide the best possible advice to pupils on course choices, universities, work experience and co-curricular activities. Old Salopians also benefit from access to support from the Department wherever they are, at every stage on their career path.
The Futures Department really helped me in Fifth Form and Lower Sixth to help formulate an idea of what I wanted to go on. Being able to talk to someone about work experience was invaluable and the work experience I did was because of them.
The Futures Department is open to students throughout term time and is well stocked with university prospectuses, gap year and careers publications and information. Based centrally, there is a student space for independent research and video interview preparation.
Shrewsbury is also a registered SAT centre, which means that Salopians do not need to travel far to take the tests; we also offer a training course to members of the Lower Sixth, which is usually run over the course of 10 evenings in the Michaelmas and Lent Terms.
SAT Exam Information
SAT Exam Information
Shrewsbury is usually available as a centre for the SAT when the school is open; available dates can be found at the Collegeboard website: www.collegeboard.org.
Registration is open from 7.45am until 8.00am, at which point it will be closed and testing will commence. Please read the rules carefully of what to bring (including photo ID and a charged device) and note that late arrivals cannot be admitted.
Please see our Directions page for details on how to find the School and a site map
Ready for a World of Futures
Life at Shrewsbury is so busy and full of diverse activities that it can be hard to imagine ever leaving, let alone planning for a future that might still seem a way off.
The principles of the Futures programme are three-fold:
1. Explore
1. Explore
Through a comprehensive Tutorial, PSD and Futures programme, Third and Fourth Form pupils will have multiple opportunities to explore a range of careers options, reflect upon and improve their employability skills.
2. Develop
2. Develop
Fifth Form pupils will access one to one guidance interviews with qualified professionals to form an action plan to inform post-16 choices, to develop their understanding of their future options. They will also undertake a range of psychometric tests to aid self-awareness, as well as attending relevant events.
3. Compete
3. Compete
Sixth Form pupils will access a range of support from the Futures Department to enable them to compete for positions that are reflective of their post 18 plans. These are anticipated to include places at top Russell Group Universities, Degree Apprenticeships, School Leaver Programmes, employment roles and meaningful gap year programmes.
Further details on the Futures programme can be found in the booklet below.
Beyond Shrewsbury
Quality in Careers Standard
Shrewsbury has successfully achieved the national Quality in Careers Standard using the Career Mark approach.
As England’s dedicated national quality award, the Quality in Careers Standard – through external assessment – uniquely accredits the four components of the CEIAG:
Careers Education
Careers Information
Careers Advice
Careers Guidance
Shrewsbury was delighted to be awarded this accreditation and expresses enormous gratitude to the OS Community, the parent body and friends of Shrewsbury School who have supported various initiatives during recent academic years. These have varied from careers insight talks, to concepts for new events (such as our inaugural ‘Enterprising Futures Conference’), mock interviews, work experience placements, university panels and much more.
Meet The Team
Frequently Asked Questions
How should I choose my GCSEs or A Levels?
How should I choose my GCSEs or A Levels?
This is probably our most common question and there is actually a very simple way to go about this. You want your choices to be ACE, in that they reflect your Abilities, your Career ideas and what you Enjoy, with the last point being the most important. If you study subjects you are interested in and have a passion for, you will be motivated to do the required work both inside and outside of the classroom to be successful. To enable positive choices, it is important to spend time talking to subject teachers and reading through course information to help you finalise your plans. The choice must be yours though!
Why should I do work experience during school when I don’t need it for university?
Why should I do work experience during school when I don’t need it for university?
For a number of reasons. It can help provide you with careers insight to actually help confirm your university plans, it can enable the creation of employer networks and it can help build skills that are required for workplace performance, such as communication, teamwork, decision making and leadership. Alongside this, research confirms that your future employers are equally (if not more) interested in your employment experience as they are your academic qualifications. If both of these are strong, your chances of gaining a good position will only increase.
How will I learn more about different jobs and different options?
How will I learn more about different jobs and different options?
In a number of ways. Throughout the academic year, there is a rolling programme of events where we welcome industry specialists (many of whom are former pupils) to talk about their experiences, organise careers and Higher Education Fairs, deliver PSD lessons on decision making and option choices, etc. We can arrange one to one discussions with employers and sixth formers will have access to an employer mentor to help them with their planning. You can book an appointment with a staff member from the Futures Department, as well as access some incredible careers based platforms to help shape your ideas. It is absolutely fine to have no idea about what to do, and you are very fortunate to have many ways now of finding out.
How do you work with external partners and alumni?
How do you work with external partners and alumni?
We are incredibly fortunate to enjoy outstanding support from both our alumni and parent body. Given the range of activities and events that the Futures Department offers, it is essential that we are able to utilise the incredible expertise that exists within these groups, whether it be the offer of a careers insight talk, a work experience opportunity, or mentoring, we work closely with a range of individuals and organisations to ensure we continue to offer the high-quality provision to our pupils. If you are keen to contribute to our programme, the Head of Futures would be delighted to hear from you.
In March 2022 we hosted an in-person mock assessment centre where 50 professionals, including Salopian families and Old Salopians, conducted competency-based interviews as part of National Careers Week, raising awareness among pupils of potential recruitment processes.