our Excelling students
Challenge for All
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At The Highcrest Academy, we believe that every student should be challenged to achieve their very best, regardless of their starting point.
Our approach is built around a culture of Challenge for All. Through ambitious curriculum planning, high-quality teaching and carefully planned opportunities both within and beyond the classroom, students are encouraged to think deeply, work independently, take intellectual risks and develop the confidence to challenge themselves.
Our commitment to challenge has been recognised nationally through the NACE Challenge Award, which we have proudly held since 2013. In 2026, The Highcrest Academy successfully achieved reaccreditation once again and remains the only school in the local area to hold the award.
During our most recent accreditation, NACE recognised the school's continued commitment to improving both provision and outcomes for more able learners and embedding high-quality teaching and learning.
This commitment to challenge sits alongside our wider inclusive ethos. In November 2025, we also maintained our Inclusion Quality Mark Flagship status, which we have now held for 12 years. Together, these accreditations reflect an important principle at Highcrest: inclusion and academic challenge go hand in hand.
Identifying our Excelling Students
Within our wider commitment to Challenge for All, we identify students who require particularly high levels of academic challenge.
We use the term Excelling Students to encompass three groups: Higher Prior Attainers, More Able students and Most Able students.
Identification is used to ensure that teachers understand students' starting points and can provide appropriate levels of challenge. It is not intended to place a ceiling on what any student can achieve.
Higher Prior Attainers (HPA)
Our Higher Prior Attainers are identified using their Key Stage 2 prior attainment on entry to Highcrest.
This provides us with an important starting point from which we can monitor their progress and ensure that these students continue to be appropriately challenged throughout their time at the Academy.
More Able
Our More Able students are identified through their performance within their classes.
Unlike prior attainment, this is not a fixed label. Students' performance and development are reviewed as they progress through the curriculum, recognising that students can develop and excel at different stages of their education.
Most Able
We recognise that ability can also be subject-specific. A student may demonstrate particularly high levels of knowledge, skill, creativity or potential within an individual curriculum area.
Each subject therefore identifies its Most Able students using subject-specific criteria, including students' starting points, assessment information and the qualities associated with excellence within that discipline.
This enables departments to provide opportunities for students to deepen their knowledge, develop greater independence and engage with their subject beyond the core curriculum.
Challenge in the Classroom
Challenge for our Excelling Students begins with high-quality classroom teaching.
Our curriculum is deliberately ambitious, and teachers plan opportunities for students to think deeply, make connections, solve problems and apply their knowledge independently.
Our approach is not simply about giving students more work. Instead, we seek to provide greater depth, complexity and independence, encouraging students to become confident and autonomous learners.
Teachers have strong subject knowledge and use their understanding of individual students to provide appropriate levels of support and challenge. Our ongoing professional development ensures that staff continue to develop their practice in providing ambitious learning for students of all starting points.
Opportunities Beyond the Classroom
Our provision for Excelling Students extends beyond classroom teaching. We are developing a progressive programme of challenge and enrichment that provides students with opportunities throughout their time at Highcrest to broaden their experiences, develop academic confidence and raise their aspirations.
In Year 7, students can take part in our Challenge Club, led by our Challenge Co-ordinator. Students use Challenge Maps and project-based activities to explore ideas beyond the curriculum, develop their independence and work alongside other students who enjoy being challenged. Selected students also participate in Axiom Maths, providing additional opportunities to develop mathematical thinking, problem-solving and reasoning.
In Year 8, we work with The Brilliant Club to provide students with experience of academically challenging learning beyond the school curriculum and to begin developing their understanding of higher education.
As students progress through the school, this focus increasingly connects academic challenge with their future aspirations. Students have opportunities to experience university environments, including planned visits to the University of Oxford, helping them to understand the pathways available to them and encouraging them to think ambitiously about their next steps.
We also draw upon the expertise of our own school community. Sixth Form students work with younger Excelling Students in English and Mathematics, providing additional academic challenge while giving students the opportunity to learn from positive role models who have successfully progressed through the same stages of their education.
Together, these experiences create a developing thread of challenge, aspiration and academic enrichment throughout students' time at Highcrest. Our aim is for students not only to achieve highly, but to develop the curiosity, confidence and ambition to recognise the opportunities available to them beyond school.
Excelling Criteria by Subject
Excellence looks different in different subjects.
Each curriculum area therefore identifies the knowledge, skills and characteristics associated with highly able performance within its discipline.
If you would like to explore what being an Excelling Student might look like in a particular subject, please use the subject links below:
These challenge maps are designed to stretch and challenge students that have been identified as most able in a specific subject area. This is a fantastic opportunity for our students to be involved in extra-curricular projects and take responsibility for their own learning journey. Each half term they will be encouraged to complete a project of their choosing, thus increasing their autonomy. These projects are available below and will be reviewed termly. It is important to us that the most able students can work independently and autonomously but still seek support when they need it, and therefore students will have the support from their class teacher when completing their projects.
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Mr O Lugg
Challenge Coordinator
olugg@highcrestacademy.org.uk