During this term we have been pleased to welcome a number of external providers into the academy to create opportunities for your child's personal development, as well as the Life and Personal Development curriculum they already experience. This is a fantastic opportunity for our students to develop into positive role models and focuses on some of the areas in our RSE and Health Education curriculum and underpins our academy’s wider curriculum delivery:
emotional intelligence;
understanding their own mental health;
developing a positive self-image and self-worth;
how to develop healthy relationships;
responsibility for their own personal hygiene;
how to keep themselves safe;
understanding the importance of physical activity;
Student Voice overwhelmingly asked for us to contact a range of external providers and workshops to support this delivery and we are pleased to share these with you. This term, we have hosted the Self Esteem Team, an external provider, to deliver to the Y9 and Y10 cohort. We have also welcomed motivational speaker, Steve Beckles - The Man With The Orange Tie, to kickstart the Y7 and 8 Honours programme and support the ACE programme. This promotes the three B’s of Be Safe, Be Respectful and Be Responsible and builds on our intrinsic curriculum- having an inclusive, caring culture and ethos.
SY Fire Service have delivered their Heat of the Moment to Y8 and Darker Nights assemblies to Y9. These assemblies have made students aware of the consequences of making poor choices and the impact on our community in relation to arson and hoax calls. Spectrum have continued to support the academy’s delivery of intimate relationships with Y9. In addition, they will be supporting age appropriate knowledge and understanding of puberty and healthy relationships to Y7 and 8.
This week we are taking part in Anti Bullying Week, by ‘Making a Noise about Bullying’. We are proud to achieve the United Against Bullying Silver Award in September (only 14% of schools who completed the programme achieved this status and 3% achieved Gold). CompassBe will be providing a workshop for our Anti Bullying Ambassadors and support their projects and ideas to celebrate differences in all and having a respectful culture. If you would like your child to attend this please complete the Google Form - they do not need to already be an Anti Bullying Ambassador - we would love as many students as possible attending the event on Thursday 16 November (Anti Bullying Ambassador training). In addition our Kindness Champion loyalty cards will be handed out this week and we are excited to see students taking part - being United Against Bullying and spreading kindness.
In December we are fortunate to welcome Alison Cope into the academy to deliver some extremely important messages during an assembly with Y8 and 9 students.
Alison Cope is a multi award winning anti youth violence campaigner. She delivers age appropriate awareness sessions in schools and colleges across the UK, with these assemblies covering the links between social media and an increase in youth violence; she will share the reality and real life devastation using her own experiences. The sessions are inspiring, thought provoking and reassure young people that knife crime is rare and there is always an alternative. You can see an overview of Alison’s work on her website: www.alisoncope.com
If you would like further information regarding Alison’s assembly, or have any concerns regarding your child attending, please contact s.riley@shafton.outwood.com. Students will be given more details nearer the time with regards to the timings of these assemblies during the academy day.
To support careers education and employability, students will experience assemblies on confidence, resilience and positive mindsets. Our KS4 Careers Fair was extremely successful and valuable. We hosted many providers and we are looking forward to our KS3 Careers fair in March 2024. We also have an extensive enrichment programme to drive talent and opportunities.
Our Y11 have experienced, to name a few, their PS celebrations, given the opportunity to receive enrichment loyalty cards, walkthroughs in GCSE English, Y11 information evening, Rise to 9 and Assertive Mentorship and continued support in enrichment opportunities.
We are keen to continue to work with student and parent voice to provide personal development opportunities throughout the academic year.
