Honours Programme

The Stewards Honours Programme is a coaching focused group for pupils from Years 8-11 who have shown potential to achieve Grades 8-9 based on Key Stage 2 starting points and internal assessments.

The programme involves a fortnightly meeting during morning prep to discuss their learning, progress and targets  and opportunities to offer support and guidance throughout the year. Pupils engage in activities based on P4C (Philosophy for Children), public speaking and personal reflection to facilitate growth mindsets.

This year we also entered a team into the Young Citizens Magistrates Mock Trial national competition and we had two cohorts entered onto the Brilliant Club Scholar’s programme.

The Brilliant Club

24 pupils from Years 9-11 from the Honours Programme participated in a programme run by the Brilliant Club called the Scholar’s Programme. This provides support for pupil-led projects run by current PhD students. We were allocated Goldsmiths University in London for our introduction to the course and pupils were given a project linked to the Arts and Humanities departments focusing on the wellbeing of staff at care homes.  Through a combination of university trips, in-school tutorials and online resources, pupils develop knowledge and skills to help them progress to further and higher education. The pupils all wrote 2,000 word dissertations focusing on research methods and their own proposals to tackle the barriers to wellbeing faced by staff at care homes. At the end of the programme, pupils were invited to graduate at Trinity College, Cambridge University. This is the second year that pupils from Stewards Academy have participated in this programme.

Young Citizens Mock Magistrates Court Competition

For the past two years, a group of pupils from year 9 have entered the national Mock Magistrates Court competition and attended Stratford Magistrates Court for the regional heats. This involves pupils studying a case provided (last year it was a case of criminal damage by environmental activists) and preparing for a variety of roles including magistrates, lawyers, key witnesses,  court reporter and artist. To help them prepare, pupils are visited by a local Magistrate who provides a detailed overview of the routines and processes that make up the British Criminal Justice System. As well as the case provided, pupils get to experience prison transport, a tour of the cells and understanding of various sentences including the use of tags. This is a fantastic experience for pupils especially those interested in pursuing a career in law.