High Attainers

WELCOME

The term ‘high attainers’ is defined as those students whose progress exceeds age related expectations. However here at Beauchamps we recognise the need for a broader and more enriched approach for our most able students. We have therefore put in place a curriculum designed to stretch and challenge the higher achievers, as well as offering various opportunities outside the classroom to develop not just our students’ skills and understanding, but also allow them to see what opportunities lie ahead in careers and higher education.

We are thorough and flexible in our identification of our high attaining students, both on an overall and subject-specific basis, and strenuous in our monitoring of their progress to ensure the best possible outcomes for all.

Through this provision we hope to instill aspiration and a love of learning to ensure the highest level of achievement for the future of our students.

Miss N Bailey
Strategic Leader of High Attainers

 

Higher Attaining Subject Provision

English – In English we want to promote a love of learning through providing challenge to all our pupils including offering additional opportunities to our higher attaining pupils. From Year 7, our higher attaining pupils will be invited to our after school Aspire Higher Club, where they will have the opportunity to develop their English skills outside of the classroom. We also encourage our students to take part in our Poetry in Performance Competition which begins in school and then allows our pupils to compete with pupils from other schools. Further up the school, students are taken to the theatre or to Poetry Live events to prepare them for studying Shakespeare and poetry at GCSE. We are always on the hunt for national competitions such as BBC Radio 2’s 500 word story competition and the HG Wells short story competition to provide opportunities for our higher attaining pupils to flourish and showcase their talents. For KS5 and beyond, in order to prepare our students for life beyond Beauchamps, we try to invite in university lecturers and we are even exploring the opportunity for residential visits for our potential Oxbridge students.

Maths – In Maths our higher attaining students are challenged from the very first lesson in Year 7. This constant development of the skills of our highest achievers continues throughout the school, including during their GCSE and A Level years. This ensures the highest possible achievement from these students, who will develop strong, applicable skills along the way. Outside of lessons, we offer the UKMT Maths Challenge at various points throughout the school, as well as visits and in-school enrichment activities for our students to see the benefit of studying maths in a wider context.

Science – In Science we offer a challenging curriculum which increases our higher attaining students’ curiosity and encourages them to learn and develop the necessary skills in order to achieve excellence. This development starts in year 7 and is implemented all the way through GCSE and A Level. We also offer a range of enrichment activities outside of lessons, including our after-school STEM club, in school visits from outside agencies and trips to science fairs. We also celebrate British Science and Engineering week to show how science applies to real world situations. We encourage our higher attainers to be the driving force in future scientific developments.

Geography – At Beauchamps we allow students to develop their understanding and enjoyment of geography through trips to the Science and Natural History Museum, as well as encouraging students to explore the subject independently through a list of recommended books, films, programmes and locations to visit. We run competitions that extend geographical knowledge and skills to make sure students become well rounded geographers which involve tasks such as geocaching and completing open university courses. We also advertise topical talks from leading academics to help further understanding from the RGS, Fieldstudies Centre and the G.A, as well as university departments across the country and the wider world. Lastly, we run a Geography Club based around different countries each week and students get their own passport as we move around the world and learn about different cultures. We try and encourage higher attaining students to organise this club where possible for younger students, to develop their leadership skills and to help promote and share their love of geography with the school.

History – Academically History allows for the development and deepening of a range of skills (for example, explanation, analysis and evaluation) which supports a range of other written subjects across the school. Opportunities for this are highlighted throughout lessons and if needed students are directed to these. We additionally look to conceptually challenge pupils’ understanding and, judgements within lessons through discussion and written tasks. Where needed written structures are provided to help support students to reach the higher levels.

Outside of the classroom the department encourages students to immerse themselves in the subject. Up to date reading, watching and visiting lists are available and take into account what is currently available, on platforms such as Netflix, and what is being taught. Where possible we also try to run trips to support the learning in the classroom. In the past we have taken groups to the battlefields in Europe, The Medical Museum and The British Library to enhance understanding for GCSE and A Level students.

We are running several extra-curricular clubs for students in KS3 – a History Film Club, which allows students to focus on topics around the curriculum or further their knowledge on those they have been learning about and a higher attaining students Personal History Project, which gives students an opportunity to delve deeper into a historical topic of their choice and develop their own project on this topic.

In KS5 students are encouraged to participate in a weekly film review group and teachers mentor students according to their ability to ensure that they are challenging themselves appropriately. Wider reading is always encouraged and we have worked closely with the library to develop the historical reading available. The independent Study unit in particular allows for students to develop themselves as learners, completing a piece of work to degree standard.

ERP – High attaining (HA) students are engaged through multiple different stretch and challenge activities inside and outside of the classroom. Students are engaged through deep questioning that allows students to think in more depth about the philosophy of religion. Students are engaged with extension activities that encourage higher level thinking skills, that usually require students the  to demonstrate skills to compare and contrast or evaluate. We use the approach of learning both ‘from’ and ‘about’ religion in our extension activities. Students may learn ‘about’ religion and then compare what they have learnt ‘from’ religion. Students are also able to access online resources that allow them to challenge the nature of reality. Students have access to philosophical podcasts on Teams, along with other podcasts that provide an insight to ethics and morality and how both ethics and philosophy have had an impact on religion. HA students also have the opportunity to engage with ERP through Extra-Curricular activities. We currently run a lunchtime club called ‘Big Questions and Biscuits’ that challenge students to think about philosophical questions and to understand the nature and purpose of religion. We also take part in the ‘Spirited Arts’ competition that encourage students to create a creative project based on a religious theme. This gives HA students the opportunity to create an abstract concept based on the theme. HA students are also encouraged to be creative in our ‘First Give’ programme where students have the opportunity to win £1000 for a local charity. This gives HA students the opportunity to come up with creative ways to present their charity and through fundraising activities that are relevant to the charity. Many HA students that supported the charity Mind last year come up with the idea of a sponsored silence for their social action plan. This was effective as it represented the stigma attached to keeping silent about mental health issues. HA students are enjoying the current provisions that are put in place to challenge them, I plan for more resources to be included in the future. 

MFL – Our high attainers in French have the opportunity to develop their spoken skills in the subject through conversation sessions. In addition, we offer Spelling Bee competitions to enhance the written part of the subject, as well as a French Breakfast event in school to develop a cultural understanding. As further provision for our students’ cultural development, we are also currently organising trips to both Calais and Paris.

ICT and Computer Science – Our department focuses on ensuring that our higher attaining students are able to develop a deeper understanding of the subject, through the use of strategies such as becoming subject ‘experts’ and assisting other students in developing their work. In Computer Science we encourage higher attaining students to work together and set big programming challenges that they can tackle collectively or autonomously. We also offer Computer Club on Fridays after school, where students are inspired to pursue their own creative ideas outside the curriculum. For ICT we encourage students to complement their ability by adding other skillsets such as learning to use new, more complex, software programs to enhance their work such as website design and photo editing.

Art – The identification of higher attaining students in Art can be tricky as there are so many different medias and styles a child can have strength in. In the first few weeks at Beauchamps, we explore our students’ ability to research an artist of our choosing, drawing out ideas linking to the artist and then to create a final development painting. However, we recognise that it takes time to see all of our students’ strengths in this subject and therefore we invite students to bring in any work that they have previously created, this can be artwork done in their primary schools or things that they have produced at home. The larger the portfolio of work and range of medias the student has used, makes this process much easier. If the work is on a large scale, we will happily look at photos to inform our decisions. If you feel your child has at talent in Art, we would love to hear from you. Please email Miss Moore if you feel your child has a talent in art, you can attach photos of artwork should your child feel nervous about bringing them to us. Our provision for high attainers begins from day one and all lessons are designed to stretch our pupils however, once we have identified these students, they are invited to join an Art Club or our Art Committee. Once part of these extra-curricular opportunities, students work independently creating a range of outcomes to promote skill development in a range of medias and processes using key events in our school year such as the set designs for drama and music productions, designing reward postcards, displays and much, much more.

Drama – Our high attaining students in Drama are able to develop their skills and confidence further in the subject through well targeted lessons and extra-curricular provision. Subject specific workshops are run to develop and create experience of further styles of theatre, these are led in small groups to focus on creating more targeted direction. Support is offered for those who are preparing for external examinations such as LAMDA.

Music – Higher attainers are challenged in every lesson, throughout all key stages. Each unit of work is highly differentiated with appropriately demanding and purposeful work. In addition, our daily extra-curricular activities offer a wide choice of music making, stretching our young musicians further as soloists, within ensembles, including choir and orchestra, to our more technological studies which involves composing music in our very own music computer suite, which houses top quality iMac computers linked to midi keyboards. Along with numerous opportunities to perform inside and outside of school, plus annual departmental trips including to the West End of London, our higher attaining students are fully challenged and are encouraged to join in from the very first moment they step into our department, in Year 7.

PE – At Beauchamps High School we have many high achieving sports men and women in various sports; these pupils will require a little more support in balancing training commitments with school life. The gifted programme aims to provide a support structure to enable our high-level sporting students to achieve in both aspects of school and sport.

A yearly meeting is held with just the gifted students, parents, and PE Staff where we work through any issues or problems these pupils might have, it also allows likeminded students to talk with each other about their achievements. Alongside this they will also have access to an exclusive Gifted Extra-Curricular programme each term that includes specialised training sessions that are designed to push them onto new heights in various sports. Here at Beauchamps we encourage all our gifted students to represent the school in as many sports as possible as this holistic approach has proven to be the best method for producing elite athletes in the UK. To encourage this, we have setup a Hall of Fame listing all the sports represented by our gifted students as well as introduce the full colours badge reward for anyone who represents the school in 5 sports or more.

The gifted programme is designed to give the best support possible to those pupils who are committing many hours to high level practice and competition alongside their schoolwork. At Beauchamp’s we expect a full commitment to our fixture and extra-curricular programme from all our gifted and talented students and hope they can act as role models to others in their year groups. 

Food and Nutrition – Food and Nutrition higher attainers at Beauchamps are encouraged to seek more out of the classroom. Our Food share point has links to food programmes, BBC Food website (and others) for recipes and technique videos, plus food and nutrition websites, there are also links to subject related articles. The emphasis is on building independence and searching out unknown areas for themselves. We discuss current food programmes on the television. Students are aware of topical instagram pages to follow ie Jamie Oliver, jamesmartinchef and @cookingbuddiesclub. We give out extra recipes for home cooking, we encourage students to adapt and change recipes to include higher level skills or more unusual ingredients when cooking in school. We have a past pupil visit school who is a qualified chef and is lucky enough to work under Gordon Ramsey at The Savoy. He visits school and performs cooking demonstrations and talks about his food journey. Finally, we run a baking cooking club for yr 7 and the older higher attainers are encouraged to come along and help out our younger students.

 

Accelerated Reading – Chatterbooks Reading Group (will move online this year). 7-9 by invitation. Shared reading activities, book reviewing, shadowing of national book awards, recommendations to other students. Just before shutdown, we were developing a Beauchamps Teen Book Awards, which would have been managed by the students themselves, gathering nominations, promoting in assembly and managing the voting system. Year 7 & 8 Classics Club high achieving students in AR invited to join at Christmas. Challenged to read a set number of children’s classics for rewards (Gold, Silver, Bronze). History gifted readers in conjunction with History dept, historical fiction related to the KS3 SOW is sourced and promoted to high achieving students. Can be extended to other departments.

Citizenship – In Citizenship, higher attaining students are encouraged to follow the news and current affairs, in order to be more aware of what is going on in the world around them, and to bring in current examples to support topics discussed in lessons. Higher Ability students are also encouraged to develop their written explanation skills by including clear examples to illustrate their points and help develop their ideas. At the end of year 9, there is also the opportunity for some students to be entered for a full GCSE exam in Citizenship, which will give students entered an additional GCSE qualification, as well as experience of a real GCSE exam and the development of their skills in revising and preparing for the exam.

 

Design and Technology – High attainers in Design and Technology can expect to learn some more advanced techniques when working through extension tasks in our design topics. Students are encouraged to independently research new ideas and use their creativity to steer the projects in their own direction. We also run an extracurricular club after school for students to learn industry standard software such as Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator, as well as more practical skills with timber and polymers.