Most Able learners are defined as those who have one or more abilities developed to a level significantly ahead of their year group (or with the potential to develop these abilities).

Ofsted’s report on ‘The most able students: are they doing as well as they should in our non-selective secondary schools?’ made it clear that many most able students who attend non-selective secondary schools fail to achieve their full age-related potential compared with students who attend selective and independent schools.

Walthamstow Academy currently provides dedicated after school weekly provision for around 15% of our Key Stage 3 cohort – 50% more than national guidelines suggest. Our provision is led by staff who were themselves the Most Able at their schools and went on to attend the country’s top universities such as Oxford, Cambridge and UCL. 

Provision is centred around three knowledge strands on a half-termly Carousel.

Our provision is vertically integrated. Students move on from the extra-curricular KS3 Carousel to a wider focus on super-curricular provision outside of school, often in collaboration with University Widening Participation programmes, at KS4 and KS5.

Our year 10s are currently taking part in the Scholars Programme, run by The Brilliant Club. The programme begins with a launch trip to a top UK university, before students complete 7 in-school tutorials with their own PhD tutor. They are working towards writing a university-style assignment on a challenging area of postgraduate research. This will be marked by their PhD tutor, before students attend a graduation trip to another top UK university where their achievements will be celebrated. This programme gives our most-able students a deep insight into living and studying at top universities.

Year 10 students on their Scholars Programme launch trip to the University of Oxford, January 2020

Our Most Able provision is led by:

Stephen Bell-Brown
G&T Coordinator/Teacher of English
stephen.bell-brown@walthamstow-academy.org