Phoenix Academy - Year 11 academic support

Phoenix Twilight ran from 2017-2019, before being interrupted by the coronavirus pandemic.

Every week throughout the academic year, up to 16 students from Phoenix Academy came to Latymer Upper for academic intervention sessions taught by LUS staff. The sessions were two hours long and cover specific areas of the GCSE curriculum. Staff from both schools collaborated on topics to be covered.

Aims

A group of Year 11 students at Phoenix Academy attend weekly ‘twilight’ lessons on Maths, English, Chemistry and Biology. These take place on a Monday evening 16:15 – 17:15 (some lessons finish later). Lessons are intended to complement their curriculum learning and better prepare them for their GCSEs. 

Pupils are brought to Latymer by their teachers in a minibus, they have a drink and some snacks before they start the evening lesson.  Phoenix Academy identifies a group of approximately 15 pupils who they think will benefit from the intervention programme. Latymer teachers should be introduced to relevant Heads of Department at Phoenix to discuss suitable content. 

Background

The partnership was originally started in 2017, in collaboration with the previous Head Michael Taylor  who wanted to support their most able students.

Resources

Classes are taught on-site at Latymer Upper School.

Six Latymer teachers were involved and the costs are covered by Phoenix Academy.

Impact

Quantitative and qualitative feedback research is conducted at the end of the programme each year. Since it was cut short due to lockdown in 2020, we have insufficient data for full evaluation. Examples of feedback however include:

"After a few sessions I felt more encouraged and inspired to learn more and to better myself. So, thank you." Phoenix Twilight student

"We’ve tried to stretch the pupils who are the high achievers in the year group, see if we can push them a little further with excellent teaching" Head of Year 11, Phoenix Academy