What does aspiration mean within Halewood Academy?

An aspiration is the ‘hope or ambition of achieving something’(google definition).

We are dedicated to support student’s aspirations. All students have aspirations however, it is our job as educators to ensure students know how to achieve those, and put strategies in place to support.

How do we support your aspirations?

At Halewood Academy, we aim to ensure we meet the needs of our student’s aspirations by enabling experiences and encouragement to follow the correct pathway. We understand studentsaspirations may change from time to time so we try to offer our students as many experiences and enrichment opportunities as possible, some ways in which we do this are:

• Guest speakers
• Trips and visits to colleges, universities and businesses
• Extra-Curricular activities
• Careers events
• A careers coordinator (Mrs MacCallum)
• PSHE lessons
• Coaching and mentoring programmes
• Future Female Leaders
• Meeting Alumni
• Career of the week
• Mock interviews
• Lunch time careers drop in sessions
• Virtual tours/speakers

High Attaining and Talented (HAT) Students

A part of the aspirations programme is the identification of High Attaining and Talented (HAT) students. High attaining students are those who scored a high level (equivalent of a level 5 or above) in their KS2 SATS. Talented students are those who demonstrate a particular talent outside of the classroom (please see HAT policy below).

Identification

A range of strategies will be used to identify children including:

• Departments have set criteriato identify talented students within their subject area. Departments will put forward nominations to HAT Leader, final decision made by HAT leader.
• SATS/P2S assessment data will support staff nominations.
• Children’s work. The ability of some able children is identifiable through the quality of their work or response to activities.
• External sources, such as, representing a club outside of school or performing for a stage school.

Action plan for HAT students

Once students have been identifiedas HAT they will be closely monitored by the Aspirations Coordinator and a specific subject mentor. Students will meet with their mentor for extra support and guidance to ensure they are achieving their potential. Students may be provided with further reading, leadership roles,Unifrog (please see Unifrog tab for more information) and peer mentoring.

Useful Resources and Websites

Books that may be of interest to parents/carers:

• “How the Gifted Brain Learns” by David A Sousa
• ‘’The Chimp Paradox’’ by Prof Steve Peters
• “EffecticeResources for Able and Talented Children” by BarryTeare
• “Help Your Talented Child” by BarryTeare
• “You’re SmarterThanYou Think” by Thomas Armstrong

Some Useful websites

• www.unifrog.org –Careers/further education advice.
• www.mensa.org.uk – lots of IQ tests and puzzles.
• www.twicegifted.net – this provides information on children who are gifted in conjunction with disability.
• www.extremeintellect.com – this is for everyone interested in the subjects of IQ intelligence, genius, memory and increasing knowledge.
• www.hoagiesgifted.org – this is full of resources, articles, books and links.
• www.iggy.net - this is a social network designed to help gifted young peoplerealise their full potential. It gives members access to great educational resources and encourages them to work with top academics and other gifted young peoplearound the world.
• www.nace.co.uk - The National Association for Able Children in Education. This specialises in supporting teachers in providing teaching and learning for able, gifted and talented pupils.