Achieving Economic

Well-being

Mentoring

Every term students are assessed on the level or grade at which they are currently working. This is based upon class work, homework, internal assessments and coursework marks. These assessments enable staff to assess students' progress and compare it with their challenging targets, set when they come into the Academy in Year 7 and reviewed regularly. As they move through the Academy, we see our students as on a 'staircase' towards high achievement at GCSE and beyond.

Assessments form the basis of 'learning conversations' between the student and teacher; teachers can discuss students' progress and progression from one piece of work to the next. Parents receive an Opening Report at the beginning of the year setting out the Academy expectations and targets. In addition parents will also receive a report termly. Following these assessments, students meet with their Tutor to discuss any issues, setting short-term curricular targets, and then follow-up meetings to see how far the student has come towards meeting the targets set. Students who may be experiencing problems with coursework or class work, and are not reaching their attainment targets in more than one subject area, can often be tracked by a member of staff. Students requiring more input will be referred to the Guidance Leader.

Learning and Working

In Year 10, all students follow at least one week of work experience. This is matched to the studies they are following at the Academy, their career aspirations and their interests. During the placement, progress is monitored and our staff visit all students when they are in the workplace. Back with us, all students are given the opportunity to share their experiences, record what they did and did not enjoy about the experience, and reflect on how it has helped them in terms of future career aspirations.

We have established strong ties with a variety of businesses that regularly contribute to our work experience programme and help to support our vocational subjects. The Academy also works closely with Cumbria Business Education Consortium (CBEC) and regularly takes part in events and competitions they organise in conjunction with local employers. All students have the opportunity to participate in Enterprise events and activities where the emphasis is on real-life business situations, with business people and employers running the event.

Citizenship

Citizenship is central to the ethos of the Richard Rose Central Academy. It provides students with increased awareness of current issues locally, nationally and internationally. Citizenship also allows students to participate and express themselves in variety of ways. These include taking part in trips to places of interest such as the Carlisle Courts, interacting with a variety of guest speakers, and voicing their ideas at the many student committees. We have specialist Citizenship teachers providing high quality curricular provision.