Excelling Educationally
The Academy prioritises the acquiring of language and social and emotional development because these are often the two biggest barriers to educational achievement for our students. We often find that we need to re-engage our students with learning, and to enable them to see that learning is relevant and enjoyable. For that reason, we prioritise experiential and relevant learning, with lots of opportunities for kinaesthetic or ‘hands on’ learning. Kinaesthetic learning is one of our education principles
Through our partnerships with mainstream providers, we are able to offer a wide and varied curriculum alongside the delivery of core subjects within the Academy. The 14-19 diplomas (hyperlink to 14-19 leaflet) and progression pathways are enabling our students to learn more subjects in different ways. Through our hairdressing salon, car mechanics course and hospitality and catering course our students can learn at the Academy alongside children from mainstream schools and colleges.
Every student is set challenging targets each term and these are regularly monitored to assess the progress made towards achieving them. We strongly believe that deafness should not be a barrier to high achievement, nor an excuse for not achieving it. Without specialist support, a deaf student will struggle to achieve their full potential, but the specialist support at the Academy should enable all students to achieve.
For some subjects, the Academy enables students of similar levels of ability to learn alongside each other, irrespective of their age. This has been shown to raise standards and levels of achievement and created an aspirational culture.
All students are assessed according to the personal learning and thinking scores, and targets set for the different skills needed to become an independent learner.
We regularly analyse the academic achievements of our students and where they go to after leaving the Academy. This year, nearly half our students have left to go to University, which is a tremendous achievement for them and the teaching staff at the Academy.