Stockport Academy delivers a Character Education under the umbrella of the school-devised Future Me self-assessment framework.  The framework/graphic was created to help students articulate their personal development, both in and out of main curriculum, and has been embedded in the Academy for 5 years.  Serving a community with 40% of our students identified as being from disadvantaged backgrounds, our mission of Creating Opportunity to Succeed drives our exciting and engaging co-curricular offer.  The Academy has applied for the Character Kitemark.

The Assistant Principal for Character Education is responsible for the management and delivery of:

• PSHE including CEIAG and Enterprise,
• Co-curricular
• Student leadership
• Community
• Extra-curricular trips to embed knowledge and learning
• An assembly schedule that looks to celebrate national and international events

PSHE

Years 7 and 8 have specialists delivering content in curriculum time in both bespoke sessions and through RSE topics.  PSHE is assessed for these years in our normal exam cycle. 

Years 9,10 and 11 cover PSHE in a series of Future Me days, Assemblies, Enterprise days and trips.  Specialists in subject matter, both internal and external, deliver workshops to students against a pre-planned curriculum programme.  The school has close affiliation with a number of key businesses in the local area who support the school in making our offer relevant and valuable to employers.

Enterprise

Students in years 7 to 10 take part in a full day Enterprise activity covering all basics of business management, from concept to marketing and delivery.  Student business leaders in the upper years support lower year events, expanding upon their management,  relationship and financial planning skills.

Co-curricular

With over 60 clubs offered to students of all years, opportunities are available to broaden horizons and embed knowledge.  Clubs are varied and are both curriculum and interest/hobby based and are linked to Future Me attributes.  Attendance is tracked and engagement promoted by the Co-curricular lead.  Students receive records of achievement showing activities they have participated in and the skills these have helped develop.

Student Leadership

Leadership opportunities are available to student in all years with a ladder of growing responsibility culminating in our Prefectural Board in Year 11.  Leadership opportunities are by application and interview, allowing staff to prepare students for college, university and work interviews.  Students are expected to use the language of the Future Me to articulate the skills gained through their experiences in school and out.  Student voice is sought through our Student Council cabinet and through T&L initiatives requiring feedback on practice.

Assemblies

Whole year and house assemblies follow a robust schedule linked to key messages, days of interest, safeguarding and mental wellbeing, co-curricular interest, curricular based content and external speakers.  Student leaders are encouraged to contribute and participate in assemblies where relevant as they develop their presentation skills.

Trips

With over 50 trips running last year staff are encouraged to offer experiences from embedding curricular content to just good fun.  A selection; students visited Auschwitz, climbed Snowdon, visited Museums and Mosques, attended sport fixtures, studied geographical features, had a mass picnic in the park and went to the cinema for a treat. 

CEIAG

Careers advice and guidance runs to a comprehensive and progressive programme tracked against the Gatsby benchmarks.  2022 shows 97% of our cohort participating in learning after leaving school.

Community 

Our school community is vibrant and enthusiastic and students engage in whole school activity with vigour.  Our street party celebrations for both the Jubilee and Coronation are fondly remembered by our student body with our student leadership teams taking the lead in devising and delivering these with honed project management skills.  Remembrance activities such as our long standing Poppy-Drop and Manchester Bee see our student body reflecting with respect and empathy on lessons to be learnt. 

The recent introduction for 2023 of a house system, to promote a sense of belonging and to understand the impact that one person can have one others, has been warmly embraced by all and we look forward to over 30 house challenges throughout the year ending with a whole school trip to Stockport County Club for our house Sports Day

We consider Future Me to be the language of success, and work with our students to understand how they can use this vocabulary to link back to their experiences at Stockport Academy as they prepare to enter the world of work.

Students take part in a Future Me Day in school once per term, which supports their development into conscientious, fully-rounded individuals who have all the skills they need to succeed in whatever path they choose.

The four pillars of Future Me are Powerful Knowledge, Character, Personal Skillset and Place in Society. This is explained in more detail in our prospectus.