Academy Achievements

Creative Partnerships 'Change' school. After three successful years as a hub school we have just become a CP change school. This means that we will continue to work with a wide range of outstanding artists and practitioners to support our work in developing engaging and creative ways to deliver the curriculum.

The Duke of Edinburgh's Award aims to provide for young people an enjoyable, challenging and rewarding programme of personal development, which is of the highest quality and the widest reach.

To achieve this award the PE department have met the following criteria:

• Minimum FA qualifications for teachers.
• Football to be provided to boys and girls in the curriculum.
• Football to be provided for boys and girls out of school hours.
• Schools to be affiliated to the English Schools Football Association.
• School to club link with junior football clubs, who enter boys and girls competitions.
• School to deliver the Junior Football Organisers to KS4.

The standard is a simple statement of what a school that is managed well financially should look like. Good practice is assessed in five areas as follows:

Leadership and Governance
People Management
Policy and Strategy
Partnerships and Resources
Processes
Although meeting the standard is voluntary, it provides a useful tool for reassuring governors, head teachers, finance committees, local authorities and Ofsted that steps are in place to ensure sound financial management.

A healthy school is one that is successful in helping pupils to do their best and build on their achievements. It is committed to ongoing improvement and development. It promotes physical and emotional health by providing accessible and relevant information and equipping pupils with the skills and attitudes to make informed decisions about their health.

A healthy school understands the importance of investing in health to assist in the process of raising levels of pupil achievement and improving standards. It also recognises the need to provide a physical and social environment that is conducive to learning.

Healthy schools have 3 main aims:

To tackle health inequalities
To promote social inclusion
To promote school improvement
To achieve Healthy School Status we have focussed on 3 key strands:

Physical Activity
Healthy Eating
Drug Education

The Investors In People Standard is a business improvement tool designed to advance an organisation's performance through its people. In practice this means ensuring that staff receive the training they need to meet the requirements of their role, develop their own careers and update their skills.

The Standard is a proven framework that helps organisations to improve performance and realise objectives through the management and development of their people.

Investors In People is a flexible framework that any organisation can adapt for its own requirements. It mirrors the business planning cycle (plan, implement, review) so that it can be readily incorporated into future development plans.

The framework involves:

Plan - Developing strategies to improve the performance of the organisation;
Do - Taking action to improve the performance of the organisation;
Review - Evaluating the impact on the performance of the organisation.

Effective schools are inclusive schools that monitor, develop and devise strategies to improve the effectiveness of their provision to meet the needs of all students.

Our School has become the first school in the North West to be recognised for making all its lessons and activities accessible to all students. We were proud to be awarded the Inclusion Quality Mark in April 2006.

“To thrive in the twenty-first century, it is not enough to leave school with a clutch of examination certificates. You have to have learnt how to be tenacious and resourceful, imaginative and logical, self-disciplined and self aware, collaborative and inquisitive." Guy Claxton, Building Learning Power

Learn to Learn is a skills-based course followed by students in years 7, 8 and 9. Through Learn to Learn, students discover how they learn best and how to become better learners. The Learn to Learn curriculum focuses on a key skills set in each half term; Skills for Thinking, Personal Qualities, Opportunities to Develop, Relationships and Teamwork. These skills are exposed and developed through Learn to Learn and reinforced throughout the curriculum. The course enables students to develop their own self-esteem and attainment inall curriculum areas, providing a solid foundation for learning across the Academy.

We are pleased to be actively involved in Initial Teacher Training (ITT), providing placements for student teachers to experience real-world teaching under close supervision. Our level of involvement makes us a Partnership Development School.

Partnership development schools work closely with initial teacher training (ITT) providers and other schools in order to increase the capacity and improve the quality of school placements for trainee teachers. There are significant benefits for schools too, especially the whole-school approach to learning and achievement that results from a focus on teacher training.

Specialist status can only accelerate our desire to drive up standards, improve the quality of learning and teaching and to work with the community.

The national award has been presented by Sport England, the country's leading sports development agency, to schools that can demonstrate a commitment to PE and sport and that work in partnership with their local community to provide a range of out-of-school-hours activities.

Legendary England and West Ham footballer and chair of Sport England, Trevor Brooking, says: "These schools are to be applauded for their consistent efforts in embracing sport as an integral part of school life. It is important that young people have a positive first experience of sport as it teaches them to work in a team and to appreciate fair play and boosts their self-confidence.