Christleton High School celebrates NACE Challenge Award accreditation
The National Association for Able Children in Education (NACE) has named Christleton High School the 466th school to be accredited with the NACE Challenge Award. The award is given in recognition of school-wide commitment to high-quality provision for more able learners, within the context of challenge for all.
NACE CEO Rob Lightfoot said: “Christleton High School has worked successfully to attain the NACE Challenge Award. It has shown itself to be committed to developing an environ-ment in which all learners are both challenged and supported to be the best they can be.”
The award is based on the NACE Challenge Framework, which sets out criteria for high-quality provision for more able learners within a wider ethos of challenge for all. The framework is available as part of the NACE Challenge Development Programme – a suite of resources developed by NACE to help schools evaluate and improve their provision for more able learners.
NACE’s assessor reported: “The school’s core values – ‘the 5C’s’: a commitment to high standards, through a caring; creative; collaborative and cheerful environment; which enable us to be the best we can be’ – and its vision to ‘inspire both intellectual and academic excitement in all students’ are consistently demonstrated through all policies and reflected in the attitudes and behaviours of pupils, staff and governors. The curriculum is broad and balanced and the richness of this is demonstrated across the school in classrooms, in students’ work, and throughout the learning environment.
“Achievement – both academic and in terms of character development – is valued and regularly celebrated in a variety of ways across the school. The school actively seeks to ‘promote the cultural capital and moral development of each student’ and students are given the opportunity to lead their own learning and to access a very wide range of curriculum enrichment activities. Teachers at Christleton are experts and provided with the freedom to craft lessons which inspire and challenge learners.”
Improving provision for the more able remains a priority for many schools and has been highlighted by Ofsted and the DfE as a key focus. The experience and evidence gathered by Challenge Award-accredited schools also shows that effective strategies to improve provision for the more able are likely to have a positive impact on the achievement of a much wider group of learners.
To attain the Challenge Award, schools must complete a detailed self-evaluation using the NACE Challenge Framework, submit a portfolio of supporting evidence, and undertake assessment by a NACE associate. The assessment process includes examination of school data and key documents; lesson observations; and interviews with school leaders, learners, parents and governors.
CEO Rob Lightfoot said, “The Challenge Award is presented in recognition of whole-school commitment to and achievement in providing effective challenge and support for all – spanning school leadership, curriculum, teaching and learning, processes for identification and tracking, extracurricular opportunities, strong communication and partnerships, and ongoing evaluation.”
Christleton High School will now be part of the international community of Challenge Award-accredited schools which have demonstrated a sustained and effective commitment to meeting the needs of more able learners, and an interest in sharing expertise for the wider benefit of the education community.
Find out more: www.nace.co.uk/challenge
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