Most Able

At The Highfield School, we believe that every individual should have an equal opportunity to develop and achieve their full potential. We believe that a more able child needs just as much support, guidance, opportunity and encouragement as all other students in the community.

The school aims to provide a broad and balanced curriculum, which is both challenging and enriching. The particular needs of most able students will be met through enriched curriculum opportunities, in order to develop a higher level of thinking skills. This will often be achieved through high quality teaching supported by adaptations that ensure a high level of challenge for all.

In addition to our classroom curriculum, we provide a greater emphasis on creating opportunities for talents to flourish and to raise aspirations such as moving on to our Sixth Form and then to challenging and aspirational post 18 pathways.

At The Highfield School, alongside our challenging classroom teaching, we are very proud of the range of enrichment opportunities we offer our most able students. We offer an impressively wide range of extra-curricular clubs and societies which students are encouraged to attend. In addition to this, some of the highlights of our enrichment programme for students have included university master classes, academic conferences, and fitness training sessions, national debating competitions, national science competitions, musical concerts, drama performances, theatre visits, foreign tours and art exhibitions. Our full offer for extracurricular can be viewed on the website.

Year 6 into 7 - School Transition

Before our students join us we aim to inspire so that they aspire. All Year 6 students are given a Year 6 into 7 Challenge Passport with tasks designed to begin their journey to excellence. They can complete these tasks over the summer holidays and bring them to Highfield when they begin in September. These tasks are rewarded and the students begin their Challenge journey.

Key Stage 3

Highfield Key Stage 3 the Challenge Programme involves students being nominated to take part in independent tasks, linked to different subject areas, designed to take their learning beyond the classroom. The tasks are designed to be engaging and challenging and are tracked by a specialist teacher.

Students complete an independent project, for the nominated subject, within one term and have access to teacher guidance and drop-in sessions with the Challenge Lead. The culmination of the programme is an after-school presentation to parents and community partners of the projects that have been completed throughout the year.

Participation in the programme will lead to students achieving the Highfield Challenge Pathway for that subject and they will be awarded house points and shortlisted for headteacher awards. This programme will also support students in developing transferable skills which will be useful for their HPQ and EPQ work as well as general preparation for higher education and future career progression.

In addition, our Star Homework provides additional opportunities for exploring and developing curriculum knowledge outside of the classroom and this is explained in our homework guidance video.

HPQ Level 2

In addition, our students have the opportunity to undertake an Higher Project Qualification (HPQ). This is equivalent to a GCSE and gives the opportunity to our more able students to research, create and present on a topic of their choice. In doing this, they develop a range of academic and transferable skills such as research methods, presentation, academic writing and of course develop creativity and high level thinking skills.

Years 9 - 13 - Higher Education Aspirations

Central to our Challenge programme is raising student aspiration regarding University. The importance of Higher Education is introduced in Key Stage 3 and continues to Year 13. Speakers from a local university and Oxbridge come in and work with the students, and at Key Stages 4 and 5, selected more able students are taken on visits to universities and take part in masterclasses and workshops. Recently, high achieving Year 10 students visited Cambridge University to take part in taster seminars in subjects as diverse as archaeology to the feelings of plants! Year 11 took part in a masterclass delivered by Oxford University based around the poetry of Donne and every year the most able Year 12 students are taken to Cambridge to the Higher education open day. A number of our students have secured places at top Universities including Oxford, Cambridge and other Russell Group institutions to study a wide range of subjects including Medicine, Law, Mathematics, History, Philosophy, Art History and English Literature to name but a few.

Level 3 EPQ

In The Highfield Sixth Form the most able students in Year 12, alongside their A levels, take part in the level 3 EPQ programme of study. This is an accredited qualification, favoured by universities, that allows the students to write an extended dissertation on a subject of their choice. This not only develops critical thinking skills, but also gives students the skills to research and write academically. When our students arrive at university or go on to higher apprenticeships and the workplace, they are equipped for the rigours of academia. This course is taught as a timetabled lesson throughout Year 12 and we work in partnership with the University of Bedfordshire to give our students access to a university library and the advice and tuition from University academics. 

Partnerships and the Wider World of Work

We also encourage our most able to aspire to excellence in the world of work. We try to link with local businesses to offer aspirational opportunities for our students. For example our Year 7 students have worked with a local ice cream parlour to create and present their new ice cream flavours. As a school we work in partnership with a number of wider agencies such as Sky Television and offer both Year 10 and Year 12 work experience. For Year 12 in particular, students are supported in applying for their own placements and are directed towards a number of prestigious companies both locally and beyond. This offers our most able students a great insight into competitive industries.