In 2006/7 Caludon took part in the National Breakthrough Programme for ‘Raising Boys Achievement’. This was an intensive programme of intervention for underachieving boys. It involved two cohort of boys; one in Year 9 and one in Year 11. These boys were mentored, both individually and in a group, as well as taking part in a number of extra activities to build a team ethos and promote positive attitudes.
The programme had a significant impact on the motivation and attainment levels of the boys, with some Year 11s going from an E to a B in their option subjects. We await the summer results to do a full analysis of our success.
The Breakthrough methodology was also used in a cross curricular way to drive improvement, a key example being the development of plenaries across the school.
In 2007/8 Breakthrough will continue to offer students a way of raising their achievement, but will be offered to boys and girls. There will be 12 boys and 12 girls (in academic mentoring groups of 6) in each of Years 9,10 and 11. The core staff team will be ISC,SAN,IBO,AMU. We will also be continuing to promote Breakthrough as a model for improvement in its broadest sense.
