It was most useful meeting the High Performing Academic lead - we hadn’t realised that you had this, and it’s a huge plus when comparing to more academic schools. He was great too, engaging and passionate about his work.
Explore Further
Pangbourne College works to create an environment where all pupils are sufficiently challenged within lessons. Our High Potential Achiever (HPA) programme is no exception, and has been carefully designed to promote subject mastery for our most able pupils.
Pupils who are identified as more or exceptionally able (HPA), either through structured baseline testing or teacher recommendations, can expect to be pushed in their learning through each teacher. Our philosophy is that by our teachers promoting challenge to our most able, through the use of an Individual Education Plan (IEP) for each HPA pupil, as well as an easy-to-view identification system for classroom teachers, we see an improvement in subject mastery for each of our pupils.
If you are identified as HPA, you can expect the following to ensure that you flourish within our community:
- A chance to read supra-curricular texts with a subject specialist, sometimes even a HPA Mentor
- A personalised IEP, written by you and your academic tutor, which captures the learning style that suits you best
- Be clearly marked on all teaching software, so your teacher knows your potential
- Links to wider-reading
- Chance to be published in the academic journal, The Crow's Nest
If you are an Academic Scholar, you can expect to be placed on our Academic Scholarship Pathway, which takes you on a carrousel of courses that you won't find on any syllabus. Examples include Introduction to Marine Ecology, Theology and The Art of Mathematics to name just two.
In Sixth Form, provided that you meet our minimum GCSE requirements, we will move you onto the Higher Competitive Courses (HCC) Pathway, which aims to prepare you for an Oxbridge, or similarly competitive course. Here, you can expect one-to-one mentoring with a specialist with experience of admissions test and the University.
We are confident that we can meet the need of any more able pupil and have an excellent track record since the fruition of our HPA Programme. Contact Jack Sims, Head of Scholars, for more information.
The Dunbar Project Qualification (DPQ)
Since September 2021 we have offered our prospective Academic Scholars in Year 7 a pathway to the HPA Programme with the newly launched DPQ.
This qualification combines scholarship preparation for core subjects with elements of the International Baccalaureate. Students will be asked to complete a project as well as extra Theory of Knowledge lessons.
For more information on the HPA Programme, please contact Jack Sims, Head of Scholars.
