High Attaining Pupils Programme

Through this policy, we recognise that the capacity for High Attainment can emerge at any time and therefore there will be flexibility in updating the student cohort list. This will include regular review and amendments throughout the year.

• High Prior Attaining Students will be identified based on their Key Stage 2 data as being above expectations. We will also examine this in conjunction with NGRT and MidYis data to identify pupils who will be classified as ‘High Prior Attaining’.
• High Attaining Students will be identified based on their performance across their Mid-Year and End of Year assessments in a range of subjects at Key Stage 3 and Key Stage 4. At Key Stage 5, we will examine students GCSE results as part of this process.

Fundamentally, we believe that every student is entitled to, and deserves, a high-quality learning experience in every lesson, of every day, in every term. Our aim is therefore to raise standards of attainment and accelerate student progress and to ensure consistency in the high-quality teaching and learning experiences provided for all our students. For High Prior Attaining (HPA) Pupils and High Attaining Pupils (HPA), the curriculum and its delivery will be supported by a range of principles which aim to facilitate student progress, such as:

• Regular low-stakes quizzing to help pupil’s commit core knowledge to their long-term memory, giving them a solid foundation from which to tackle more abstract and complex concepts.
• Identifying what ‘Excellence Looks Like’ in each subject and using this to plan for what student success and progress looks like to support students to attain it. Using ‘exemplars’ to show students what high level answers and work looks like.
• Using assessment and feedback to give students a clear understanding of what action they need to take in order to make future progress.
• Asking lots of questions which are pitched at an appropriate level to challenge and stretch pupils to think about material in a more complex way.
• Encouraging pupils’ metacognition and teaching pupils how to learn effectively. For example, using visualisers to live model teacher thinking.
• Helping students to develop effective study habits through discussing ‘high impact’ revision and independent study techniques.
• Offering students multiple opportunities to read widely within and beyond the curriculum.
• Having an explicit focus on oracy across all Key Stages to ensure students are learning ‘how to talk’ and also ‘learning through talking’; helping students to become confident in articulating their ideas.

At the John Roan School, we aim to provide all pupils, including HPA and HAP with a range of enriching activities and experiences outside of their lessons, which broaden their horizons. As such there are many specific opportunities specifically tailored with HAP and HPA in mind across Key Stages 3-5.

Key Stage 3 and Key Stage 4

• The Brilliant Club Scholars Programme: In Year 9 and 10, pupils who have shown potential to achieve the highest academic outcomes are invited to participate on the Brilliant Club Scholars Programme. At least 55% of the pupils participating will be eligible for FSM or those whose do not have experience of higher education in the UK. Participating in the programme enables pupils to participate in ‘university style learning’ which culminates in a graduation ceremony after successful completion of an extended essay.
• Gonville and Caius Year 9-10 programme: Facilitated in conjunction with our Cambridge partner college, this is an online programme that takes place after school and supports students to find out more about university life. Students will have the chance to find out about competitive university, explore their subject interests, talk to current Cambridge students and attend an online lecture.
• Gonville and Caius 11-up programme: Facilitated in conjunction with our Cambridge partner college, this is a series of online workshops aimed at able year 11 students that take place after school. They give students an overview of how to choose a university course, university life and study including taster lectures.
• Academic mentoring at Key Stage 3: Sixth Form mentors work closely with a select number of HPA and HAP pupils to provide academic mentoring throughout the year. This might take the form of specific mentoring within a subject area or developing pupils’ academic interest outside the curriculum.
• John Roan Key Stage 3 Excellence Programme: Students will be invited to participate on the John Roan KS3-4 Excellence Programme throughout the academic year. This will include but it not limited to, an invitation on at least one trip to the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge and at least on termly ‘supra-curricular’ seminar run by subject specific teachers and provisions of wider-reading lists.
• Additional GCSE Provision: Eligible students will be offered various opportunities to complete additional GCSE’s including in Home Languages, Further Maths, Triple Science and Astronomy.

Other enrichment opportunities which are particularly relevant to HPA and HAP pupils:

• DebateMate: Debate Mate aims to tackle educational disadvantage by running extra-curricular debate workshops for 9–18-year-olds. These workshops help students to ‘increase speaking and listening attainment and improve a range of high order thinking skills such as confidence, teamwork and leadership.’
• Model United Nations: Participants become diplomats, researching a country, and proposing solutions to the problems of the day. Through debate, deliberation, and compromise delegates attempt to draft a United Nations resolution with clauses that address and mitigate or resolve the stated issues.
• John Roan School Council: Students who have been elected to become School Council Representatives come together several times an academic term to discuss aspects that they believe make the school a great place to be a part of, but also aspects they might like to change or implement to make the school more reflective of the wishes of its students.

Key Stage 5

We have high aspirations for all our Sixth Form pupils and support our pupils with high learning potential in applying to Russell Group Universities including Oxford and Cambridge. There are a number of opportunities designed with this in mind:

• The Extended Project Qualification (EPQ): The Extended Project Qualification allows our pupils to embark on a largely self-directed and self-motivated project, overseen with the support of a dedicated supervisor. Pupils must choose a topic, plan, research and develop their idea and decide on their finished product. Pupils who successfully complete the EPQ may be eligible for reduced offers from Russell Group Universities.
• Core Maths: Core Maths is an umbrella term for a specific type of level 3 maths qualification. A Core Maths course can be taken alongside A levels and vocational qualifications. It’s equal in size to an AS level qualification and carries the same number of UCAS tariff points, up to 20 points.
• John Roan Sixth Form Excellence Programme: The John Roan Sixth Form Excellence Programme is designed to support students with their applications to competitive Russell Group Universities. The programme will involve at least one trip to either Oxford/ Cambridge throughout the academic year and involve bi weekly in-school sessions which aim to increase students understanding of how to apply to Competitive Universities. The programme will also require students to read, watch and listen beyond the curriculum and develop an independent research project based on a topic or issue of their choice to support with their personal statement development and preparation for entrance exams.
• Work with link partners at the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge: We work with our link colleges and partners at the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge to deliver a number of workshops and programmes which are designed to support student progression to higher education at ‘Oxbridge’. These include the Cambridge Higher Aspirations Programme which involves subject specific mentoring and a short residential to Cambridge University.
• Ambition bulletin: We will signpost students to a number of opportunities in a bi-weekly Ambition Bulletin which contains a number of opportunities relating to work experience, summer school programmes and academic lectures that students can take advantage of.

At the John Roan School, we recognise the fundamentally important role that parents can play in supporting the progress of HPA and HAP pupils and ensuring that they display a positive attitude to their learning and achievement in school.

To further support your higher attaining child at home you may like to:

• Encourage your child to discuss what they are learning at school.
• Encourage your child to read widely beyond the curriculum to broaden their vocabulary and develop their ability to tackle more complex texts.
• Support your child to complete their Home Learning by asking them what Home Learning they have to complete and providing a quiet space in which they can do this.
• Encourage your child to partake in extra-curricular activities such as Sport, Music and Debating to help develop their interpersonal skills.
• Help your child develop their ‘cultural capital’ by visiting museums, galleries and exhibitions.

• Senior Leadership Team (SLT): SLT will clearly articulate the link between provision and whole-school improvement. SLT will ensure that monitoring and evaluation of this group occurs at a strategic level across the year.
• Heads of Department (HOD’s): HOD’s will play a key department role in making an informed, professional contribution to the identification process of HPA and HAP students and will be responsible for developing quality first teaching within departments and developing curriculum provision which stretches and challenges all learners.
• Teaching staff: Every member of teaching staff must be fully aware of students classified as HPA and HAP to ensure their teaching is meeting the needs of these pupils.

At the John Roan School, we are committed to regularly reviewing our provision for High Prior Attaining (HPA) and High Attaining Pupils (HAP) to consistently improve our provision and adapt to the needs of our school context. Review and evaluation of our provision will be carried out in a number of ways, including:

• Progress of individuals tracked and evaluated across time and across subjects through mid and end of year assessment cycles.
• Student voice
• Learning walks conducted by SLT and HOD’s
• Analysis of quality and impact of enrichment programmes