our Excelling students

HIGHER PRIOR ATTAINERS,  MOST ABLE and MORE ABLE

At Highcrest we challenge every student…

The Highcrest Academy is fully comprehensive in every sense of its meaning. We pride ourselves on our diverse intake and we are unique in welcoming a balanced range of pupils from all abilities which is representative of the community. Indeed, to recognise our work in this area, we were reaccredited for the sixth consecutive year, with the Flagship Inclusion Quality Mark in November 2022. This award is only achieved if all pupils of all abilities are stretched to perform to their maximum.

Furthermore, we challenge every student no matter what their perceived ability and in 2022 received the NACE Challenge Award and continue to retain our status for our commitment to challenging more able students. Our excellent inclusive practice was also identified in Ofsted’s Annual Report 2016, and we have continued to develop this work over past years.

Many of our students have the opportunity to showcase their skills in a range of different areas for example, competing in the UK Maths Challenge, Chemistry Olympiad and school sports fixtures. These competitions and assessments include local, national and international organisations.

Excelling Students' Categories

At The Highcrest Academy, we group our excelling students into three different categories. These include:

High Prior Attainment (HPA)

Our Higher Prior Attainers are those students who arrive at Highcrest on grade 5+ based on their KS2 tests in English and Mathematics. This group of students is irrevocable and students will continue to be our HPA cohort throughout their time with us.

Most Able (MA)

At Highcrest, every subject area also defines its ‘Most Able’ students based on a combination of their starting points and test scores on arrival at the academy. In subject areas in which setting takes place, these students will usually be in the top set. This group of students will naturally have high levels of autonomy and academic productivity and, in turn, teachers will plan personalised schemes of work to continuously challenge them. These students are encouraged to complete challenge map activities that are designed to run in parallel to existing schemes of work and offer students the opportunity to engage in extra-curricular projects. This group can change dependent on the child’s performance in each separate subject over their time with us.

More Able

Our ‘More Able’ are our top 20% highest performers in every teaching class and are not linked to setting.

Click here to view our programme for HPA, More Able and Most Able Students.

Excelling Students' Criteria

These challenge maps are designed to stretch and challenge students that have been identified as most able in a specific subject area. This is a fantastic opportunity for our students to be involved in extra-curricular projects and take responsibility for their own learning journey. Each half term they will be encouraged to complete a project assigned by the subject that nominated them. These projects are available below and will be reviewed termly. It is important to us that the most able students can work independently and autonomously but still seek support when they need it, and therefore students will have the support from their class teacher when completing their projects.

Miss S Leonard
Teacher of Science & Challenge Coordinator
sleonard@highcrestacademy.org.uk 

  Excelling Students' Information Pack