Reading

All students have a morning of reading during Personal Development time once a week. A key focus of the Academy is Language for Learning. We are all teachers of reading. Students have to read and comprehend texts in every subject at secondary level.

‘Reading, writing, speaking and listening, are at the heart of every subject in secondary school. Focusing time and resources on improving reading and writing skills will have positive knock-on effects elsewhere, whether that’s being able to break down scientific vocabulary or structure a history essay.’

Sir Kevan Collins, Chief Executive of the Education Endowment Foundation (2022)

Students are encouraged to read from ourreading list. The reading lists encourages students to read appropriate literature to develop students reading ability. Form Tutors are informed of students reading levels and where appropriate students are provided with alternative reading materials more suitable to them.

Reflect and Week Ahead

Each week begins with Reflect and Week Ahead. Reflect and Week Ahead:

• Ensures students are aware of activities taking place this week that may impact them.
• Promotes student success stories to encourage further participation in Enrichment based events.
• Shares stories from around the world to support citizenship.
• Promotes House Events and Scores to support our House System.

Curriculum

Many topics that support Personal Development are covered directly through our curriculum areas such as Science, RE and PE. The Academy Personal Development leads work closely with department to establish when these topics are delivered to ensure appropriate sequencing when delivering topics in Personal Development time.

SMSC

A full Academy Audit is carried out every Academic Year to ensure there is plenty of Spiritual, Moral, Social and Cultural Development opportunities for our students. We believe our SMSC offer is vast due to a broad and deep curriculum, tools such as our Priory Passport, our vast extra-curricular offer and large number of visits that take place. 

Extra-Curricular

There is a vast extra-curricular offer that includes House events, the arts, sports and a number of student interests that supports the enrichment of our students. These also support a number of events that take place over the year such as our School Show, Sports Day, Carol Service and Arts Extravaganza. Our website always has an up-to-date list of the opportunities available here: The Priory Academy LSST - Extra-Curricular (priorylsst.co.uk)

House

All students belong to one of our Houses of Alexandra, Avalon, Castille and Sempringham. A number of events take place each year that students are encouraged to participate in to further support Enrichment and the enrichment opportunities available. Events are as vast as swimming galas, chess tournaments, throwing wellington boots and designing a structure to keep an egg safe. There are events on most weeks, and we also have whole school events throughout the year where all students try to earn points for their House such as ‘Priory Impossible’ and ‘Benchball’. More information about the House System can be found here: The Priory Academy LSST - House System (priorylsst.co.uk)

Student Roles and Citizenship

There are a number of student roles available for students to undertake that help develop a variety of skills:

Role	Activities
Academy Council	Meet once a module  Feedback ideas and questions from form representatives  Input into policy and procedure
Academic Mentoring	6th Form students assigned to support specific students –academic support
Form Group Support	6th Form students assigned to form groups to deliver activities and support form tutor
Anti-Bullying Ambassadors	Representatives from each year group coordinating approaches and activities to tackle bullying and provide support
Teaching Bursary	Sixth Form students working with classroom teachers to get experience in teaching and delivering lessons
House Ambassadors	Sixth Form students supporting the Enrichment Leaders to organise and deliver house activities and promote the house system
FACT	Organise and carry out fundraising activities
House Captains	Members from each form group promote and organise participation in House activities.
Form Captains	Members of each form gather feedback from members of the form to pass on to Academy Council
Wellbeing Ambassadors	11 Y12 students trained by Nurture Garden to provide wellbeing support to younger students
Priory Pride	Student support group for the LGBTQ+ community and raising the awareness of the community within the Academy.
Prefects	Sixth form students are identified to support students at break times.
Head Boy, Head Girl and Senior Team	Sixth form students are selected through an interview process to lead the prefect team and represent the Academy.
CCF Leadership	Responsibilities start usually 1 year into CCF and as students are promoted the role gains in size and complexity. Responsible for supporting the functioning of the CCF and the students within it.

Visits

A number of visits take place each year. These include whole year group visits, subject visits and rewards visits. Whole year group visits ensure all students have the opportunity to take part in a visit. Visits give students a range of experiences that support Personal Development outside of the classroom. For curriculum based subject visits, Pupil Premium students are supported financially to be able to access these. 

Discussion and Debate

Discussion and debate are regularly encouraged in lessons. As well as this discussion and debate is encouraged and promoted as part of both Awareness and Further Personal Development regularly and we have a Debating Club.