Personal Development
We provide a multitude of opportunities to further enhance learning which has taken place in the classroom, and offer these in the areas of sport, creativity, performing, volunteering / membership and the world of work, including one week’s work experience in year 10.
In addition, we plan a range of educational and aspirational visits, masterclasses, targeted visits, booster classes, language development, student leadership activities, sporting activities, the Duke of Edinburgh Award, cooking as well as homework and revision spaces for students in both key stage 3 and 4. We also encourage and give our students opportunities to participate in inter-school competitions in a variety of disciplines at a local, national and sometimes even international level.
Extra-Curricular
Our students have access to a full range of extra-curricular activities, which run every day of the week. These are designed to enhance and further develop the knowledge gained in the classroom and ensure that our students achieve their academic potential.
Year 11 students are expected to lead their learning by planning a revision schedule for each half term, ensuring that they attend a minimum of two booster sessions per week. To further support year 11 students the academy runs masterclasses during the Autumn and Spring half term holidays; these are extremely well attended and have a clear impact on both student confidence and attainment.
Click here to see our current offer of extra-curricular activities.
Enrichment
Our mission to ensure that our students be the best and have the skills needed to become the leaders of tomorrow means that our curriculum is much more than a timetable. All subject areas have planned enrichment activities for the academic year, which further stimulate and develop students’ curiosity and passion for a subject.
The academy recently hosted the Anne Frank Exhibition; every student in the academy went through this, and it was led by our fully trained Anne Frank Ambassadors and we have trained UK Democracy Ambassadors.
Our KS3 offer has a huge range of activities, so there is something for everyone within the 26 different clubs.
We are passionate about securing life chances and opportunities for our students, and have created a personal development journey which complements our extra-curricular and enrichment offer. This journey details opportunities which students are encouraged to take to ensure that they understand the importance of learning from mistakes, and build intellectual and emotional resilience. Examples of opportunities include becoming a Peer Mentor or a Reading Friend, or speaking out and representing tutor groups on the School Council. Wellbeing, literacy and Sports Leaders are all opportunities for students to step out of their comfort zone and find strengths which they didn’t know they had.
CEIAG
We hold the CEIAG Quality in Standards benchmark, and have recently introduced a bespoke learning platform to capture student intentions and aspirations; this data is shared with curriculum areas so that bespoke and targeted enrichment activities can be planned. Our CEIAG offer is further enhanced by enrichment including work experience in year 10, D of E and engaging with both careers and apprenticeship fairs. Transition from KS4 to 5 is a real strength, and not in Education, Employment or Training (NEET) is significantly better than the local and national at 0.57%.
Mental Health and Wellbeing
Students are supported fully to ensure that they are able to cope with the demands placed upon them, and we have a fully trained Mental Health First Aider who is also ELSA trained. The academy has recently been awarded silver level of the Carnegie Schools Mental Health Award and is expected to achieve gold by July 2020. Our role in the NHS Trailblazer project has secured additional support.
SMSC
Our framework for SMSC education identifies the key concepts, skills and attributes that are developed and delivered via tutor period, assemblies and the Citizenship and STARS curriculums. This enables the academy to fulfil our statutory responsibility to safeguard students, support their spiritual, moral, cultural, mental and physical development and prepare them for the opportunities, responsibilities and experiences of life.
The curriculum also enables our students to make their own decisions and to take responsibility for their own lives and communities as well as having a grasp of the political, legal and economic functions of society.
A golden thread throughout this curriculum is our offer matched to our context and intake; students receive regular input on a variety of issues such as gangs and knife crime. We believe that prevention is key, and our intent is to educate our students with the knowledge and confidence to make the right choices.