We’re Future Readiness Award Winners!

Leighton Park has been recognised as a national leader for preparing students to thrive in a fast-changing world, winning the Independent Schools Association (ISA) Award for Future Readiness. The award aims to celebrate best practice in preparing students for their life beyond school and ensuring they have the skills and the mindset to thrive. The School won Senior School of the Year in the same awards last year.

Alex Wallace, Deputy Head (Academic) who was at the conference dinner to receive the award on Thursday 14th November enthused: “I am absolutely delighted and incredibly proud of the whole school community who have contributed to the winning of this award. It has been an excellent evening!”

As a values-led school, we create unrivalled opportunities for personal development and character education, while working with partners to create a better world. This focus draws on our heritage as a Quaker school and the impressive history of Quakers who set up forward-thinking companies like Cadbury and Rowntree; extraordinarily successful businesses that also treated staff and suppliers fairly and created social good. Equally important, Quakers helped found leading charities and campaigning organisations, such as Amnesty International, Greenpeace, Oxfam and the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust. Quakers won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1947.

Our vision is to prepare our students to be future changemakers through innovative and comprehensive educational approaches that extend beyond the traditional curriculum. Our goal is to nurture self-awareness and community engagement, empowering students to imagine a better world, and with the skills to make a meaningful difference.

Alex continued: “The award reinforces the strength of the curriculum we have created. It is wonderful to see the work of our Approaches to Learning (ATL), Creativity Activity Service (CAS) and Oakleaf Diploma programmes being recognised. It is the skills developed in these subjects which will ensure our students can thrive in their lives beyond Leighton Park. We are currently excited about the role that AI can play in education.”

Our award-winning approach includes:

Foundation of Self-Understanding

Our Year 7 & 8 students enjoy a unique two-year curriculum called Approaches to Learning developing essential skills such as metacognition, harnessing artificial intelligence (AI), academic referencing, collaboration, presentation skills, coaching, and, most importantly, self-understanding.

STEAM Academic Approach

We equip our students to play an active role in tackling the global challenges facing humanity, such as Climate Change, Food Security, the 4th Industrial Revolution and Gender Equality.

Sector-leading Pupil Personal Development

Our Creativity, Action, and Service (CAS) lessons in Years 8, 10, and 12 place an emphasis on transferable skills and developing a powerful sense of self. Our objective is for every student to experience being a changemaker during their curriculum time, fostering a lifelong passion for helping others.

Oakleaf Diploma

The Sixth Form Oakleaf Diploma prepares students for adult life, including through our Ethical Changemaker Speaker Series with business and community leaders and social entrepreneurs.

Climate Change

Climate change and biodiversity loss are two of the most pressing issues of our times and are reflected in our curriculum, our interdisciplinary, cross-curricular projects such as Sustainability Week and our expansive co-curricular programme.  The School was joint winner of the Green Senior School Award 2023 by CityKidz Magazine, as well as being a Finalist for the Award for Environmental Achievement in the Independent Schools of the Year 2023 Awards.

Impact and Commitment

Our commitment to ensuring our students are ready for the future is evident in the tangible impact our students have had. Over the past two years, they have contributed more than 272 hours of reading support and over 6,000 hours of volunteering. Our students leave Leighton Park inspired and equipped with the skills necessary to improve the world, and we are confident that our approach is making a significant difference.