Endeavour Policy

Rationale

At Farlingaye High School provision for all students is to be as inclusive as possible and seek to provide for the needs of students through appropriate differentiation, and extension opportunities developed and delivered through the mainstream curriculum. It is important to recognise that all children, not just the most able, will benefit from good practice in teaching and learning, from effective differentiation, from assessment for learning and appropriate study support. It will be the responsibility of each faculty to provide appropriate challenge for high-attaining pupils within their areas.

Ofsted make it very clear that pupils will be judged on their progress from their starting points, and it is our role to ensure that able pupils who make faster progress than others have planned meaningful opportunities to deepen and expand their knowledge. Part of our responsibility is to provide opportunities for students to experience their next steps in learning including aspiring University applicants, apprenticeship opportunities and access to real word work sector challenges.

As part of our vision at Farlingaye High School, our aim is to enable students a pathway to merit their way onto the Endeavour programme as set out below. Students should learn appropriate skills and attitudes to aid their development and not just rely on academic ability.

Definition

As of 2016 students identified will be entered onto one list called the Farlingaye Endeavour Programme:

1. Endeavour students are those who have the ability and attitudes to excel across a range of academic subjects, with abilities developed to a level significantly ahead of their year group. They display characteristics of explorative thinking, perseverance and motivation.

Identification

In order to identify the Endeavour students as they arrive at Farlingaye,in Year 7 the following criteria will be used from KS2:

• Attitude to learning level in year 7 report 1
• English Reading Score (100+)
• Mathematic Score (100+)
• GPV (100+)
• English Writing (GDS – Working at a greater depth)

This is used to compile a list of approximately 10% of students across each year group.

From this point students can be added to the Endeavour programme via their efforts and successes at Farlingaye. Each faculty can nominate 10 outstanding students from within their subject area to join the programme. Faculty links will be required to construct criteria to aid this selection. Additionally as each student progresses each year at Farlingaye, a review of students’ progress will be used to determine if they should be added to the Endeavour list. Criteria for this will come from report data using the transition matrix feature on 4Matrix to assess those who have made Above Expected Progress in the core subjects of Maths, English and Science.

This list is shared with all staff and entered onto SIMS, and will be used to monitor and track progress of these students across all subjects after each report cycle at whole school level.

Year 7

On the 31st January students presented on the topic of ‘Connecting the unconnected’. The theme was set by CISCO who have sponsored the Little Big Awards STEM event. Student’s chose products ranging from toothbrushes, bins, shoes to fridges and worked out ingenious ways...

 STEM Club

Years 7 and 8 Endeavour Group students have come together to form a STEM club running for 6 sessions this half term. Mr Hawtin, Miss Chapman, Miss Baldwin and Dr Harrison have guided the group through a series of challenges designed to stretch and challenge our most able learners. So far students have designed and made Titan Lander Probes, simulated Avalanches and attempted to make the largest bubble possible. We also took the group on a fantastic day to Duxford Imperial War museum for the STEM EAST fair which catered for 500 students from the East of England. They experienced sessions ranging from programming computer games and Raspberry Pi’s, to Medical careers and Aeronautical design. STEM EAST provided experts and universities to lead the sessions and all involved enjoyed the experience. “An interesting insight into careers I would have never thought of, while also taking in the glorious historic planes” – Jake Gray 8F. For those disappointed not to make the club this half term, opportunities will be there from September next term! 

The Challenge Ahead event:

On 22nd February, Endeavour Group students from Years 7 and 8 completed an exercise that began in January.  Students had been asked to research a topic related to problems, expectations and predictions of our future lives.  They investigated topics ranging from health care, fashion, travel to food and produced presentations on their subject matter in a preliminary round dated the 2^nd Feb. Of these six groups were selected to present on stage to a judging panel of Governors and senior staff as well as an audience of parents and students on the 22^nd Feb.

The judges had a hard choice selecting the winning group as all students demonstrated excellent professionalism and presentations were of a high standard. The winning group presented on the future impact of Global Warming and included Daisy Nunn, Tilly Hobbin-Cooke and Emily Richards all from year 8. It is core to our Endeavour Group work at Farlingaye that all our students are challenged to develop new and existing skills such as communicating to an audience, working as a team and critical thinking to best prepare them for their futures. Congratulations to all involved.

 KS4 and KS5 PE Students visit UCS

Students looked around the sports science lab led by lecturer Gavin Devereux. The tour was fantastic and the students were challenged whether they believe elite Olympic Athletes are born elite or nurtured to become elite. The students all used the state of the art equipment and really enriched their understanding of sport science.

Many thanks go to UCS for allowing us to visit.

This monitoring is conducted by the Endeavour Group Coordinator and the Endeavour Group Subject Link Teachers who are:

* Endeavour Group Coordinator - Mr B Hawtin (Technology)

* Assistant Endeavour Group Co-ordinators - Miss M Chapman (Maths) and Miss C Baldwin (Creative   Arts).

* Endeavour Group Subject Link Teachers:

English - Mr I Haigh

Maths - Miss M Chapman

Science - Mr M Barrie

Humanities - Vacancy

Modern Foreign Languages - Mr A Craig

Creative Arts - Miss C Baldwin

Technology - Mrs L Cornell

Physical Education - Mr A Steed

Throughout the academic year, a variety of activities are put together for the Endeavour Group students.  The 2016/2017 booklet, which lists all activities that these students have access to, is available here. The Leading Edge team has also put together a students' website, particularly aimed at Endeavour Group students.  The link to the website can be found here.  A variety of information can be found on the website, including competitions, year activities, a blog and  twitter feed.  The website will continue to expand during the next academic year.

The Endeavour Group students at Farlingaye meet regularly at lunchtimes to participate in activities which are tailored for their needs. 

If you require any more information about Endeavour Group at Farlingaye High School, please contact Mr B Hawtin.

Over the course of the academic year, our most able students experience many fantastic events across all subjects. To find out what our students have been getting up to we hold a lunchtime session for each of the year 7, 8 & 9 year groups. Here they have a chance to meet other most able students, partake in a challenging task and eat plenty of cake! Students also have the chance to meet the most able staff team in a more social environment to discuss their needs for the future year ahead. 

The sessions were brilliantly attended and we hope next year will bring more challenging and rewarding activities for Farlingaye’s Endeavour Group.

On the 16th June, five Year 9 students were selected to attend a prestige event at one of the country’s top Universities sponsored by the Department for Education. The Russell group represents the 24 leading Universities in Britain with the London School of Economics among them. On the day the students had short talks on why they could consider studying at University, what they can do to help their applications now and a demonstration of a real lecture on the Anthropology of Ghosts!

A tour of the facilities in central London was of particular interest as some of the new buildings have been nominated for Architecture awards.

Many of the student’s highlight of the day came in the afternoon with a motivational session held by the Fix Up Team. Led by Action Jackson we learnt how we could be amazing in our everyday lives and through positivity reach goals which seem beyond our means.

Young Analyst Competition

Six year 12 students were picked to attend this annual event at UEA. The competition included using both practical and theoretical ideas on analysis to solve a range of problems. The experience allowed students to see what laboratories are like in the university setting, as well as using apparatus not found in schools. It was a hugely popular event across the area and the students got a great deal of extra understanding of analysis, to complement the OCR A/S specification they have been studying this year. This competition is annual so we will be looking out for another team (or two) next year!