Leighton Park School’s Students Celebrated as ‘Future Ready’ by Independent Schools Association

Leighton Park School is delighted to have been recognised by the Independent Schools Association (ISA) as a Finalist in their Future Readiness Awards! The award aims to celebrate best practice in preparing students for their life beyond school and ensuring they have the skills and the mindset to thrive.

As a values-led school, Leighton Park creates unrivalled opportunities for personal development and character education, while working with partners to create a better world. This focus draws on the school’s heritage as a Quaker school. Quakers have an impressive history of people who set up forward-thinking companies like Cadbury and Rowntree. These extraordinarily successful businesses that also treated staff and suppliers fairly and created social good. Equally important, Quakers helped found leading charities and campaigning organisations, such as Amnesty International, Greenpeace, Oxfam and the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust. Quakers won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1947.

Leighton Park’s vision is to prepare their students to be future changemakers. It encourages innovative and comprehensive educational approaches that extend beyond the traditional curriculum. Their goal is to nurture self-awareness and community engagement, empowering students to imagine a better world, and with the skills to make a meaningful difference.

The school does this by combining a number of approaches:

Foundation of Self-Understanding

Year 7 & 8 students enjoy a unique two-year curriculum called Approaches to Learning. They develop essential skills such as metacognition, harnessing artificial intelligence (AI), academic referencing, collaboration, presentation skills, coaching, and, most importantly, self-understanding.

STEAM Academic Approach

Students are equipped to play an active role in tackling the global challenges facing humanity. Current topics include Climate Change, Food Security, the 4th Industrial Revolution and Gender Equality.

Sector-leading Pupil Personal Development

Creativity, Action, and Service (CAS) lessons in Years 8, 10, and 12 place an emphasis on transferable skills and developing a powerful sense of self. The objective is for every student to experience being a changemaker during their curriculum time. This also helps to foster a lifelong passion for helping others.

Oakleaf Diploma

The Sixth Form Oakleaf Diploma prepares students for adult life. It includes the Ethical Changemaker Speaker Series with business and community leaders and social entrepreneurs.

Climate Change

Climate change and biodiversity loss are two of the most pressing issues of our times. They are reflected in the school’s curriculum, with interdisciplinary, crosscurricular projects such as Sustainability Week and an expansive co-curricular programme. The School was joint winner of the Green Senior School Award 2023 by CityKidz Magazine. It has also been a Finalist for the Award for Environmental Achievement in the Independent Schools of the Year 2023 Awards.

Impact and Commitment

Leighton Park’s commitment to ensuring their students are ready for the future is evident in the tangible impact that their students have had. Over the past two years, they have contributed more than 272 hours of reading support and over 6,000 hours of volunteering.

Sally Saunders is the Assistant Head: Pupil Personal Development. She commented: “Students leave Leighton Park inspired and equipped with the skills necessary to improve the world. We are confident that our approach is making a significant difference. We are delighted to be recognised in this category as one of our main goals is to prepare students for life beyond Leighton Park. Through our varied co-curricular and PSHE programmes, students have the opportunity to impact change and to make a positive contribution to the world around them.”

Editor’s Notes

Leighton Park has received several recent accolades, including winning Senior School of the Year in the Independent Schools Association Awards 2023 and being a Finalist for Independent School of the Year in the TES Awards 2023. The most recent UK Government analysis shows that the school’s Sixth Form leavers achieved the best academic progress in Berkshire. The Independent Schools Inspectorate awarded it excellent in all areas in January 2022. This is the highest possible attainment for an independent school.

The School was recognised as a national leader for Pupil Personal Development in 2022. It won the Independent Schools Association (ISA) Award for Excellence in this area. In the same year the School gained the Wellbeing Award for Schools, accredited by the National Children’s Bureau.

Leighton Park School is a day and boarding school for 11-18 year olds in Reading, Berkshire. For more information please see www.leightonpark.com

Images:

The award for future readiness

Collaboration and teamwork ensures there is the power to make a difference

Exposure to industries and events fosters motivation

Opportunities for public speaking grow confidence

Willingness to help others is key to future happiness