E1E (Everyone Exceptional) Extra Curricular Activities a Great Success at Leeds East Academy

In 2018/19 Leeds East Academy consulted with parents to discuss the possibility of implementing an exciting extended academy day offer for students. Historically the academy day finished at 2.40pm with an opt in extra-curricular programme for students to attend which ran from 2.45pm to 3.55pm. When reflecting on this offer, leaders found that when compared to the entire academy population only a small number of students would remain behind at the academy to access the extra-curricular offer. Therefore, the decision was taken to seek parents’ views on this and look at the possibility of extending the academy day to facilitate a compulsory extended school day offer for all students to attend.

The feedback from parents in response to the consultation was overwhelmingly positive and the academy notified the Local Authority of their intention to extend the academy day by 45 minutes every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday to create an additional 2.15 hours of curriculum delivery time each week. Over the course of the year this provides the young people who attend Leeds East Academy with access to approximately an additional 84 hours of dedicated curriculum time for targeted intervention, acquisition of knowledge and exciting enrichment opportunities.

The academy was conscious that the extended school day offer was branded as an interesting, engaging and unique offer for the students who attend the academy which exposes students to new experiences, the opportunity to develop cultural capital in addition to supporting the mental health and wellbeing of the students who attend.

“Cohesive”

Another key element of the offer is ‘equality opportunity’ and the academy is committed to providing these opportunities to students for free to ensure affordability is not a barrier to student participation and engagement in enrichment opportunities.

This offer has significantly evolved over the last four years and now aligns with the new academy vision of ‘Everyone Exceptional’. The sessions are referred to as an E1E offer and at key stage 3 is structured under three distinctive strands to create a cohesive and highly structured offer for the students which run from 2.45pm to 3.30pm.

The three strands include;

1. The deliberate teaching of literacy through the exposure to carefully selected fictional and non-fictional texts. At these sessions students are taught the technical skill of discussion and debate through the use of a technical debating framework.
2. The Creativity and Innovation strand which exposes students to a range of creative and enriching opportunities. A key aspect of this strand is collaboration with Leeds City College who deliver a range of different activities to students ranging from animal care to cabin crew.
3. The Core Values, Health and Wellbeing strand where students have the opportunity to demonstrate and develop the values, attitudes and attributes associated with core values of Resilience, Integrity, Trust and Ambition. The health and wellbeing strand focuses on activities to promote student welfare and wellbeing and relationships, sex and health education. The academy engages with a number of external agencies and professionals to deliver this offer.

At key stage 4 students participate in a bespoke programme of targeted intervention to support students to meet and exceed their academic potential.

“Develop their skills”

To further enhance the creativity and innovation strand of the key stage 3 offer the academy has established a number of partnerships for the E1E offer and ensure students have access to high quality coaching through the introduction of the Elite Coaching Pathway. This year the Academy is working with Leeds United, Phoenix Dance Theatre, Northern School of Contemporary Dance, DBAF (Dale Bottomley American Football), DJ School UK and Yoga Kula. All organisations the Academy are working with are nationally and in some cases internationally recognised for the calibre of work they conduct within the sector they represent, be that sport or Performing Arts. The activities have also been carefully selected in response to students’ personal interests and to provide the opportunity for students to work with elite coaches.

Sarah Carrie the academy Principal commented “We are delighted with how the offer is evolving year on year and the scope, quality and range of activities we are able to offer our student body. It really is wonderful to know that when many young people are finishing school for the day students are still on site and accessing a programme of activities to develop their skills, broaden their horizons and support them to be the exceptional learners we know they can all be. We genuinely think this is a unique offer for the community and mare looking forward to seeing how this develops further in future years.”

To visit Leeds East Academy or learn more about the E1E extended academy day pleasem contact Lucy Johnson by email on johnson.l@whiteroseacademies.org or call 0113 273 1964
More info: leedseastacademy.org.uk