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Southfields Academy

Southfields Academy

High Achieving Students

How does Southfields Academy support High Achievers?

Terminology used at Southfields Academy.

High Achieving students may also be referred to as the 'most able' by Ofsted and 'higher attainers' by the Department for Education.  Schools have in the past used the terms 'High Prior Attainers', 'Gifted', 'Gifted & Talented', 'High Fliers' and 'Exceptional' to describe this group.

These are young people who are more able in that they appear to progress significantly beyond their age related expectations.  This group also encompasses those young people who have the capacity to achieve the very highest levels.

How do we identify High Achieving Students?

At Southfields Academy the High Achievers are young people identified as High Prior Attainers (HPA) by their end of Key Stage 2 results.  The group also includes young people whom individual subject teachers have identified as being or having the potential to be High Achievers in their subject.

What are the characteristics of High Achieving Students?

Those young people identified by subject teachers as being High Achievers or having the potential to become High Achievers demonstrate distinct skills and levels of understanding in individual subjects.

Download the characterstics of High Achieving students by subject.

What do the staff at Southfields Academy do to support and ensure the maximum progress and attainment of High Achievers in their care?

  • Senior Leadership Team
    The Senior Leaders will have knowledge and be accountable for how identified High Achievers are progressing in the subjects that they manage.
  • Heads of Department
    They will have knowledge of the characteristics of High Achievers in their subjects.  Heads of Department will have exceptional subject knowledge and be experienced A Level teachers.  They will diseeminate strategies to their teachers to support the learning of High Achievers.  They will monitor the progress of High Achievers in their subjects and plan appropriate interventions to ensure maximum progress and attainment of these young people.
  • Class Teachers
    They will be able to identify High Achievers and those young people with the potential to become High Achievers in their subject.  They will know who the High Achievers they teach are through identification in their planners,  They will differentiate their lessons and ensure that stretch and challenge for High Achievers is present.  Their feedback, in exercise books, will be challenging and encourage the High Achievers to use higher level thinking and questioning skills.  They will model how to unpick high level examination question responses at GCSE and A Level through their teaching techniques.

My child is High Achieving, what sort of extra support can I expect them to receive?

At Southfields Academy the High Achieving students are not only stretched and challenged in their timetabled lessons, there are numerous break time, after-school and extra-curricular clubs where they can explore higher levels of the work they are doing in various subjects, where they can explore their individual interest areas in certain subjects with teacher support and where the teachers can spend individual time with them to ensure their achievement is maximised.

High Achieving students get opportunities to attend conferences and go on educational visits and trips organised to complement and extend their classroom learning.

Careers education focusses on High Achieving students progressing onto university courses at the country's top performing universities and there are dedicated sessions run for those groups of young people applying to medicine and Oxbridge and our success rates are enviable.