St Joseph's Catholic High School

It is important that students see the bigger picture beyond themselves and the academic outcomes they wish to see for themselves. We actively encourage and seek opportunities for students to volunteer inside and out of school as well as give back to the community of which they are part. We offer many opportunities to volunteer in school, such as supporting school events but we also offer the opportunity to take part the Learning to World Volunteer Passport (sponsored by local company SEGRO).

We want our students to ask questions, speak, listen and read with confidence. We endeavour to develop our students’ speaking, listening and reading skills, raising the importance of and embedding the use of oracy skills in and outside of the classroom. Ms Osei-Brainoo runs the Debate club at our school and we hold Oxplore debates as part of our pastoral curriculum and Oracy skills are developed explicitly as part of our PSHE curriculum.

The Extended Project Qualification (EPQ) is a skills based, independent research project that is an essential part of our study programme. The project is unique in that students decide their focus alongside close mentorship from a designated course tutor. The purpose of the EPQ is to develop valuable skills and developing a love of research, academic writing and the subject in hand. All students are given time with a tutor as part of their timetable.