What is Wider Achievement?

At Stewarton Academy we are committed to recognising learners’ achievements including through celebrating success, profiling achievement, and by using certification, accreditation, qualifications and awards. We seek to encourage, promote and recognise such achievement both through and alongside our “traditional” curriculum. We aim to celebrate the successes of our young people whether they are inside or outside of school, academic or extra-curricular, a tangible award or a personal success.

Wider Achievement within our curriculum

S1 – Junior Awards Scheme for Schools (JASS) Bronze Award (1 period weekly)

S2 – Junior Awards Scheme for Schools (JASS) Silver Award (1 period weekly)

The JASS Award is aimed at “developing well-rounded individuals” through encouraging young people to participate fully in activities and recognising their efforts and successes in doing so.

There are four sections to complete to achieve the award:

• My Interests – projects of own choice on personal interest & learning life skills

• Me and My World – a team-based citizenship and volunteering opportunity

• Get Active, Stay Active – encouraging awareness of and living a healthy lifestyle

• Adventure – a planned activity taking place over one day of the school year

All achievements and successes outside of class time can also be recognised; at Stewarton Academy we give special recognition awards to those participants who have gone above and beyond to better themselves and help others.

S3 – Wider Achievement course option (3 periods weekly)

In the final year of the Broad General Education, our learners can choose to continue with Wider Achievement inside the curriculum, allowing them various opportunities to develop their skills and achieve awards.
There are a few key awards we give the learners the opportunity to achieve:
• Duke of Edinburgh’s Award – Bronze
• Duke of York’s Inspiring Digital Enterprise Award (iDEA) – Bronze
• Saltire Award – ‘Approach’ (10/25 hours of volunteering)
• SQA Wellbeing Award – Level 3 or Level 4

S4 – Wider Achievement course options (1 period weekly)

Alongside completing National Qualifications offered by SQA for “traditional” subjects (such as Mathematics, English, Chemistry, French, for example), our learners in the first year of Senior Phase have the opportunity to further enhance their suite of qualifications and experiences by undertaking one of a number of Wider Achievement options.

These include:
• SQA unit-only courses (Computer Games Design, Philosophy, Spanish)
• Mentors in Violence Prevention Programme
• DofE Bronze or Silver Award
• Sports Leader Award

S5 and S6 Wider Achievement

Further Wider Achievement opportunities are available alongside standard presentations for NQ Awards to develop CVs and UCAS applications.
These include such as the SQA Leadership Award, SQA Personal Development Award, iDEA Silver and Gold Awards, Barista qualifications run by Kilmarnock College. Our senior pupils are also given leadership roles and responsibilities within the school through running clubs, the Prom and Yearbook committees, and being “buddies” to our new S1.

Development of Skills through Wider Achievement

An advantage of having Wider Achievement within our curriculum is that it allows further development of skills that we have identified as being key to success in learning, life and work. Certain skills are the focus of individual learning opportunities in Wider Achievement.

At Stewarton Academy our key skills that are developed through the whole curriculum are: